Library Policies
I. STATEMENT OF LIBRARY POLICIES
Introduction
The American Library Association, the Oregon Association of School Libraries, as well as most other state library and school library associations, recommend that all libraries develop and maintain written policies to serve as guidelines for those responsible for the collection, and to inform the community of the policies and practices of the library.
This Policy identifies and describes the process by which the librarian and staff of the International School of Portland (ISP) make decisions about selecting books and other materials for its collections, as well as defining practices for weeding, access to materials, challenges to materials and acceptance of donations.
The purpose and mission of ISP serves as the foundation for these policies. In addition, the guiding principles set out by the American Library Association, the American Association of School Librarians, and the Oregon Association of School Libraries were also consulted.
The Mission of ISP Library:
To promote literacy in more than one language, to foster a love of reading and literature, and to ensure that students and staff are effective users of ideas, information and technology.
The TIS Library will actively pursue this mission by providing access to a wide variety of materials in Chinese, English, Japanese and Spanish and by providing instruction designed to:
Support and enrich the language immersion mission of the school.
Employ the latest technologies
Support and enrich the general and International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme curriculum through library classes and collaboration with classroom teachers
Encourage inquiry-based learning and critical thinking
Extend students’ knowledge and understanding of the world around them
Foster a love of reading and literature
II. COLLECTION
The primary objective of ISP Library is to enrich and support the curriculum of the school. The school librarian will be responsible for selecting materials to meet this primary goal. The Library will provide a wide range of materials to support all grade levels and staff in four languages–Chinese, English, Japanese and Spanish–with consideration for diversity of appeal and different points of view. Such materials will include print and electronic resources, audiovisual resources, multimedia resources and that of any other applicable technology. The following will be considered during the selection process:
Materials that support and enrich the curriculum, reflecting a variety of interests, abilities, learning needs, learning styles and maturity levels of the student population in a multilingual environment
Materials for teachers and students which encourage growth in knowledge, and that will benefit the development of literary, cultural and aesthetic appreciation
Materials that represent different and varied ideas, religious beliefs, and social, political, historical, or world groups and their cultural contributions
Materials in a variety of formats to support student learning needs in a language immersion environment
III. CRITERIA FOR SELECTION OF MATERIALS
The Librarian will consult professionally recognized reviewing periodicals, standard catalogs, and other selection tools to guide in materials selection. Requests for the purchase of materials from staff and students will be honored when appropriate and within the library budget. Special consideration will be given to multicultural literature.
A. Materials will be selected on the basis of the following:
Relevance to the curriculum and to the interests of the students and teachers
Favorable reviews in professional journals
Favorable recommendations of materials by teachers
Reputation of the author, producer and/or publisher
Validity, currency, and appropriateness of material
Contribution to multicultural and international awareness
Representative viewpoints on controversial issues
High degree of potential user appeal
High artistic quality and/or literary style
Quality and variety of format
Value commensurate with cost and/or need
Timeliness or permanence
B. Selection is an ongoing process which will include the removal of materials no longer appropriate and the replacement of lost, worn, outdated and damaged materials still of educational value. See Section V.
C. Gift materials shall be judged by the criteria outlined above and shall be accepted or rejected by those criteria. See Section VI.
IV. ACCESS TO MATERIALS
The ISP Library adheres to the tenets of the Library Bill of Rights and does not restrict access to its collection by age or grade. It does, however, strive to provide age-appropriate materials and to place materials within the appropriate collection (Picture Books, General Fiction and Non-fiction, etc.) and to recommend suitable materials to individual students.
Parents are the ultimate authority on what is or is not appropriate for their child and are encouraged to communicate directly with their child about any limitations they wish to place on his/her reading, and to ask the librarian for recommended alternatives to materials they consider unsuitable for their child.
V. WEEDING AND MATERIALS
Weeding
Materials may be removed from the collection periodically at the discretion of the Librarian. Materials will be removed from the collection for the following reasons:
Circulation: The material has not been used in five years
Physical Condition: An item is in poor condition, damaged or missing parts
Timeliness: An item is a) obsolete, particularly in the sciences and technology; (b) no longer in demand or not in support of the curriculum; or (c) superseded by newer editions
Reliability: Materials are inaccurate, incomplete or otherwise unreliable
Duplicates: Duplicates are no longer in demand
Space: Physical space is limiting
Discarding Materials
Materials may be removed from ISP Library in the following ways:
Offered to a teacher for a classroom collection
Used in a school book exchange
Donated to a charitable organization
Recycled or thrown away
VI. GIFTS POLICY
ISP Library welcomes gifts and donations.
All donations of materials are subject to the same collection development and weeding criteria as described in Sections II, III and V. In addition:
Tax receipts are available from the Front Office; library staff cannot evaluate the monetary value of any gift for tax purposes
Donations of cash, furnishings or equipment must be approved by the Librarian or Head of School
VII. CHALLENGES TO MATERIALS
Any ISP student, teacher or other school community member may challenge the appropriateness of a particular library item. It will be the policy of ISP Library to object to censorship and to defend the rights of the school’s students to intellectual freedom and the right to read.
STEP 1
When ISP Library receives a question about a particular item, the Librarian will attempt to resolve the issue through informal discussions of the issues and by explaining the school’s collection development policies. The Librarian may or may not decide to remove the item at their discretion based on the merits of the complaint.
STEP 2
In the event a resolution is not reached in Step 1, the complainant may file a formal challenge by completing a Reconsideration of Materials Form available from the Librarian. Upon receiving such a form, the Librarian will inform the Head of School, who will assign a review committee to examine the material in question. The review committee will include, but is not limited to: the Librarian, one Library Committee representative, the Head of School, the Principal, one PTO representative and two teachers who have a vital interest in and/or expertise regarding the language or subject of the item. The committee will meet to discuss the challenge in a timely manner and to prepare a recommendation on the resolution of the matter. The challenged material will be removed from the library until the matter has been resolved. The Head of School will inform the complainant in writing of the decision made by the review committee. The recommendation will be implemented by the library.