Challenged resources

American Librairies Association Posters - IFLA WLIC 2014 CC

Challenged resources are those that may be considered controversial or offensive to members of the school community. It is important that schools have guidelines and procedures in place to deal with any challenges that may arise.

Guidelines and procedures regarding challenged resources should be developed within the school community. The Policy Statement – School Library Bill of Rights from the Australian School Library Association (ASLA) website is a useful starting point, as well as the school’s own Collection Development Guidelines.

Dealing with challenges

Dealing with challenges should be a systematic process involving:

  • referring the challenger to the school’s Collection Development Guidelines
  • completion of a Request for Consideration of School Resources by the challenger
  • a decision on whether to remove the item from the shelf immediately or after it has been reviewed
  • a review of the challenged resource by a committee comprising the principal, resource teacher, a P&C representative and the person making the challenge
  • the principal being responsible for the final decision to remove or retain the challenged item.

Donated resources

Resources donated to the school library should be added to the collection only if they:

  • are compatible with the Collection Development Guidelines
  • adhere to the selection criteria
  • fulfill a need or enhance the collection.

Donors should be informed that their donation undergoes the same selection process as any other resource under consideration for inclusion into the collection.

Originally published WA DET School Library Support: http://www.det.wa.edu.au/curriculumsupport/schoollibrarysupport/detcms/navigation/resourcing-the-curriculum/selecting-resources/#toc6. Used by permission of D. Bevan, Nov 2013

Western Australia SCIS agency

On 16 September 2013, Education Services Australia received advice from the Director-General of the  Western Australian Department of Education that the Department will be closing the  in-house cataloguing service as of 27 September 2013.

The cataloguing service has for many years catalogued resources sent in by Western Australian schools, as well as providing support and training in the use of SCIS.

Access to SCIS for WA government schools

The Department WILL continue to provide ongoing support for Western Australian government schools to access SCISWeb and retrieve catalogue records via a bulk service subscription to SCIS for all Western Australian government schools.

Cataloguing of Western Australian school resources

Education Services Australia will provide a replacement cataloguing service for Western Australian schools and is currently investigating options for schools who wish to send resources. It is a priority to ensure Western Australian resources continue to be added to the SCIS database in a timely manner. Schools will be advised of the process via email, this blog and on the SCIS website Cataloguing Services page.

Questions

If you have further questions about SCIS cataloguing services, please email the SCIS cataloguers at catinfo@esa.edu.au.
For any SCIS login problems, training or general requests, email scisinfo@esa.edu.au, or call 1800 337 405.

Farewell and thanks to the WA SCIS cataloguing agency 

WA cataloguers prior to final ISSC teleconference Sep 2013
WA cataloguers prior to final ISSC teleconference Sep 2013. Photo by Robin Wake used with permission.

We would like to acknowledge the outstanding service that the Western Australian Department’s e-schooling staff have provided to SCIS and to Australian schools. According to statistics available since 1996 a total of 240,000 learning resources have been catalogued by the WA agency.

Particular thanks to the most recent team members Bev Blackwell, Barbara Carle, Sabina Cull, Tina Hoyland, Charlene Plunkett and Suan Kui Yoong, plus previous members Leonie Samuelsson and Barbara Shardlow, and all those who have supported this team over many years.

Feel free to record your experiences of the team and its service in the comments area or send us an email.

 

Fiction Focus at http://cmisevalff.edublogs.org/

http://cmisevalff.edublogs.org/

Teacher librarians might find this fantastic blog created by the CMIS staff at the Department of Education and Training in WA to be a useful source of regular fiction news and reviews.  Recent posts include the World Fantasy Awards nominations for which fabulous Australian picture book author Shaun Tan has picked up 2 nominations.

Follow them on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/cmisevalff