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IJL - Library/Media Materials Selection, Adoption, and Reconsideration

DUDLEY-CHARLTON REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICT

POLICY - IJL

Library/Media Materials Selection, Adoption and Reconsideration

A. Definition of Library/Media Resources
Library resources are those materials, both print and non-print, found in school libraries which support curricular and personal information needs. Additionally, Library resources support the joy of reading and personal privilege/enrichment. Print items include books, magazines, newspapers, or pamphlets. Non-print items include films, disc records, filmstrips, slides, prints, audiotapes, videotapes, compact discs, and computer software.

B. Responsibility For Selecting Library/Media
The selection of library media is the responsibility of the professionally trained employees of the school system. Selection of materials involves many people: administrators, teachers, students, supervisors, and school library media specialists.

C. Objectives For Selecting Media
The primary objective of each school's library media program is to enrich and support the instructional program of the school. The school library media program makes available, through the school library media collection, a wide range of materials on varying levels of difficulty with a diversity of appeal compatible with the different needs, interests, and
viewpoints of students and teachers. To this end, The Dudley-Charlton Regional School Committee, in keeping with the ideas expressed in the Library Bill of Rights, asserts that the responsibility of the school library media program is as follows:

  1. To provide school library media that will enrich and support the curriculum, taking into consideration individual needs and the varied interests, abilities, socioeconomic backgrounds, and maturity levels of the students served.
  2. To provide school library media that stimulate the growth in knowledge, literary appreciation, independent learning skills, personal and aesthetic development, and standards.
  3. To provide a background of information enabling the students to make intelligent judgments in their daily lives.
  4. To provide materials on opposing sides of controversial issues so that students may develop, under guidance, the practice of critical thinking and critical analysis of all media.
  5. To provide materials representative of the many religious, ethnic, and cultural groups in our nation and the contribution of these groups to our American heritage.
  6. To select school library media of the highest quality in order to assure a comprehensive collection for users of the school library media center.

D. Criteria For Selecting School Library Media
Individual needs of the students and their learning styles, the curriculum, and the existing collection are given consideration in determining the needs for library media in individual schools. Materials considered for purchase are judged on the basis of the following criteria:

  1. Purpose: Direct relationship to instructional objectives and/or the curriculum
  2. Reliability: Accurate, authentic
  3. Quality: Essential or distinctive characteristics, attribute or content
  4. Presentation: Clear, comprehensible, skillful, convincing, well-organized, unbiased
  5. Technical production: Audio and/or visually clear
  6. Construction: Durable, indelible
  7. Special features: illustrations, photographs, maps, charts, graphs, etc.
  8. Possible uses: Individual, small group, large group instruction, in-depth study

E. Procedures For Maintaining The School Library Media Collections
The school library media professional, in conjunction with teachers and administrators, will be responsible for maintenance of materials. In the absence of a school library media professional, the building principal will assume responsibility for maintaining the collections.

In coordinating this process, the school library media specialist will:

  1. Arrange, when possible, for firsthand examination of items to be purchased.
  2. Use reputable, unbiased, professionally prepared selections aids when firsthand examination of materials is not possible.
  3. Judge gift items by standard selection criteria and, upon acceptance of such items, reserve the right to incorporate into the collection only those meeting these specified criteria.
  4. Purchase duplicates of extensively used materials.
  5. Weed continuously from the collection worn, obsolete, and inoperable items.
  6. Purchase replacements for worn, damaged, or missing materials basic to the collection.
  7. Determine a procedure for preventive maintenance and repair of equipment.


F. Procedures For Reconsideration of Materials
Occasional objections to some materials may be voiced by the public despite the care taken in the selection process and despite the qualifications of the persons selecting materials.

When a parent/guardian is concerned with a particular library media the first step is to contact the Principal in an attempt to resolve the issue. The building Principal will work with the parent/guardian within 10 school working days and attempt to resolve the issue informally.

In the event that parties are unable to resolve the issue informally within 10 school working days, the Principal will establish a Materials Review Committee (MRC). The MRC will minimally include a balance of building represented educators and parents or guardians. This Committee will consider the request for reconsideration of material and render its decision in writing to the parent/guardian within 45 school working days of the receipt of the concern. The 45 school working days are inclusive of the informal process and the establishment of the MRC.

No material will be removed from use until the Materials Review Committee has made a final recommendation and the Superintendent has rendered a decision.

The following steps will be observed:

  1. The building principal will establish an MRC within 5 school working days
  2. The Principal will work with the parent/guardian to ensure a Library Reconsideration Form is complete for the MRC
  3. Within 45 school working days, the Materials Review Committee will:
    1. Re-examine the challenged material
    2. Survey appraisals of the material in professional reviewing sources
    3. Determine the extent the material supports the curriculum
    4. Way merits against alleged faults to form opinions based on the materials as a whole and not on passages isolated from context
    5. Discuss the material and prepare a written recommendation to the Superintendent
    6. inform the parent/guardian of the Material Review Committee's recommendation
  4. The Superintendent shall render a decision and inform the MRC and parent/guardian of said decision within 5 school working days of receipt of the MRC recommendation
  5. An appeal of the Superintendent’s decision can be submitted to the School Committee. A letter of appeal, to the Chair of the School Committee, must be submitted within 5 school working days of receipt of the Superintendent’s decision. The School Committee Chair will schedule the appeal to be heard at a regularly scheduled full committee meeting, no later than the 30 school working days after the  receipt of notification of appeal from the parent/guardian
  6. The School Committee shall render a decision and inform the MRC, parent/guardian and Superintendent of said decision within 10 school working days after hearing the appeal.
  7. The final decision of the School Committee shall be delivered to the parent/guardian and MRC in writing.

G. Timeline

  1. 10 School Working Days (SWD) to informally resolve challenged library material with the building principal
  2. If unresolved, 5 SWD to establish a Materials Review Committee
  3. 45 SWD, including the 10 SWD (#1) and 5 SWD (#2), for the MRC to review and recommended outcome
  4. 5 SWD for the Superintendent to render a decision
  5. 5 SWD for the parent/guardian to appeal the Superintendent’s decision to the school committee
  6. 30 SWD for the School Committee to hear the appeal
  7. 10 SWD for the School Committee to render a decision

 

Disclosure of Information/Privacy of Circulation Records

Circulation records shall not be made available to anyone except pursuant to such process, order, or subpoena as may be authorized by law.

LEGAL REFS.: 

Original Adopted Date:
   December 14, 2022