Reflection on what I learnt through the development of a revised collection policy.

In revising my school’s existing library collection policy the most valuable change I had to make was the inclusion of a statement of the library’s policy on copyright issues. It seems fundamental now and given my school’s strong policy on academic honesty it was surprising that it had not been originally included in the policy. The next most beneficial aspect of revising the policy was the need to insert collection goals for the next three years. This compelled me to analyze that, despite having achieved much to establish a welcoming attractive library environment and meet inspection criteria, I needed now to focus on developing the technology resources in the library and move into selecting e-books to meet the needs of those students’ preferring to read through technology. Through revision of the library collection development policy I looked more closely at the recent inclusions in the policy to reflect our schools new focus on the IBO Primary Years Learner Profile (LP) (2013). While reference had been made to the Learner Profile in the policy, it was at a superficial level and inadequate considering our school’s commitment to those attributes as being fundamental to the ethos of our school. This analysis was, I feel, of immense benefit in highlighting a crucial flaw in the policy which needed to be addressed.