http://hdl.handle.net/2142/1354 Allerton Park Institute Proceedings (no. 1, 1954); Edited by Harold Lancour http://hdl.handle.net/2142/1463 Building Library Collections: Printed Materials May, Gertrude D. The selection of printed materials is one of the most important tasks of a school librarian. It involves many factors - endeavoring to serve and satisfy the needs of many kinds of people, including the administration, the faculty and pupils as well as considering the type of school, the community in which it is located and the methods of teaching within the school. It is a steady process and should be shared by principal, faculty and pupils, for cooperation and interest is essential in planning a serviceable library. If there is a Library Supervisor in the city school system or within the county or state the librarian will have additional means of advice and council. In presenting this subject of selection no effort will be made to discuss the fundamental principles of book selection but rather to consider some of the problems and policies. The first problem is "Who selects the Printed Materials"? Is there a city wide or a state wide policy of selection? Should the Supervisor be responsible for the selection? What authority does a supervisor have in a specific school system? School libraries Fri, 01 Jan 1954 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/2142/1462 The School Library Supervisor at the Municipal Level MacBean, Dilla With the vast changes in the rapidly expanding educational program of today we have witnessed new areas and new services encompased in the curriculum and within the school as school boards, administrators, teachers, pupils, community leaders of allied social agencies have joined together to educate the whole child. There is a common desire and endeavor to work with the individual child according to his abilities, needs and interests so as to develop a worthy member of society. The library plays an important role in this program and the concept of it has changed and grown apace. In discussing supervision in multi-library situations it should be emphasized that the fundamental principles are the same regardless of the size of the city. The organization in large cities is different simply in that the operation is far more complex. In any administrative or supervisory position it is essential to know the objectives of the institution and their relation to a department or sub-division of this parent agency. It is then necessary to formulate purposes and aims based on these objectives for the allied specialized area. It is likewise important to be directed at all times by these objectives and purposes. The admonition to a player of any ball game, "Keep your eye on the ball, " can well be applied to this basic rule in supervision. In establishing policies, in direct and indirect contacts with associates and with the personnel within the department, these principles will help maintain a true perspective and keep one from going afield. School libraries Fri, 01 Jan 1954 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/2142/1439 The Successful Supervisor Downs, Robert B. The primary purpose of supervision is to accomplish certain ends. In order to achieve those objectives, one must, for better or worse, work through people. That is where the complexities begin, for as Charles Darwin discovered in studying the origin of species a century ago, no two individuals in the animal kingdom are ever exactly alike. If some way could be found to function without people, life for supervisors and administrators would be vastly simplified. But in that event, it is likely the supervisors would not be needed either. Assuming, then that people are here to stay, and we shall have to learn to live with them, and perchance even to like them, it may be well to examine some of the trade secrets, the important principles of supervision that may help to make the job easier. School libraries Fri, 01 Jan 1954 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/2142/1438 Evaluating School Library Services Robinson, Carrie C. Services of the school library are intangible and qualitative in nature and thus do not lend themselves readily to instruments of measurement. There is recognition, too, of the impossibility of evaluating services of the school library as separate and apart from an evaluation of the school -- certainly of the major elements if not of the whole school. This does not mean that an effort to evaluate the services of the library should be undertaken only at such intervals as when a committee, composed of educators outside the school personnel, come in to appraise the school for purposes of accreditation. On the contrary, the successful on-going of the educational program is so dependent on a functional library that continuous evaluation of its services is highly desirable if not imperative. For best results, such an evaluation should engage school-wide participation, and to whatever degree this practice is not employed, the evaluation is less valid than it should be from the standpoint of providing learning situations in which the learner is motivated by real problems and goals that have meaning for him. Creating ' jeadiness and desirability within school staffs for acceptance of this responsibility is one of the major tasks for supervision. School libraries Fri, 01 Jan 1954 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/2142/1437 Evaluating School Library Facilities Hayes, Margaret The primary purpose of instructional supervision is to facilitate the learning of students by improving the conditions that affect it. Since sound planning for improvement requires an accurate appraisal of the strengths and limitations of existing instructional programs, evaluation is a major responsibility of the supervisor. The evaluation of school libraries has undergone marked changes in recent decades as a result of changes in educational measurement and evaluation. Formerly, appraisal considered only the material aspects of the library program and such elements as budget, holdings, and staff were compared with the standards of state and regional accrediting associations. Today, interest centers upon the effectiveness of the library's service, and attempts are made to judge the contribution of the library program to the personal development of the individual pupil. Appraisal of the adequacy of library facilities continues as a significant aspect of evaluation, however, because of the close relationship between this factor and service. School libraries Fri, 01 Jan 1954 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/2142/1436 Censorship as it affects the school library Lees, Gladys L. Censorship, as a problem, in the school library is increasing rather than decreasing. Attacks on the schools, which usually include criticism of materials, have increased in number during the last few years. The cases at Pasadena, California; Denver, Colorado; Englewood, New Jersey; Ferndale, Michigan; Tenafly, New Jersey; Scarsdale, New York; Port Washington, New York and many others have had national publicity. There may be many more. Although these attacks on the schools were in widely separated areas, there was a curious similarity in the criticism and method of attack. Richard B. Kennan, Secretary of the National Commission for the Defense of Democracy Through Education, of the National Education Association, sent 15,239 questionnaires to superintendents, advisory members and local association presidents concerning "unjustified attacks" on local schools. By "unjustified attacks" they meant movements which appeared to have as their purpose "nothing less than the emasculation or destruction of the American system of free public education." School libraries Fri, 01 Jan 1954 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/2142/1435 Building Library Collections: Nonbook Material Rufsvold, Margaret I. A distinguished librarian in California believes that "books are basic" and that, "It's wicked to call a library a materials center. '* But another equally distinguished librarian from California says, "the soundest and truest audio- visual enthusiasts I know are also book lovers-those who cherish books for the good they do to people and who transfer their enthusiasm to anything else that does a similar good to people. Goodness is no vested interest. " Fundamental to this chapter is the belief that the same basic principles apply to the building of the book collection that apply in the building of the nonbook materials collection. Librarians are devoted to the printed word; they know its power and its meaning, its function and purpose. They appreciate the rich heritage received through books and printing, and they hope this indispensable medium of communication will not diminish. But they know also that individuals do not live and learn by words alone. Is it correct, then, to assume that books can always do the teaching job at hand or that they can do it better than other media? John Dewey in his Art as Experience has said, "Thinking directly in terms of colors, tones, images, is a different operation technically from thinking in words. . . If all meanings could be adequately expressed by words, the arts of painting and music would not exist. There are values and meanings that can be expressed only by immediately visible and audible qualities and to ask what they mean in the sense of something that can be put into words is to deny their distinctive existence." School libraries Fri, 01 Jan 1954 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/2142/1434 The School Library Supervisor in the Consolidated School District Nickel, Mildred L. The expression "community unit" is not well known; in Illinois it is used to designate a school district in which consolidation has taken place, with one board of education and one administrator for all twelve grades. In the school year 1944-45 there were 11,955 individual school districts in Illinois, each with its own board of education. Included in this number were 9, 680 one-teacher elementary schools. Today there are 2,349 school districts, or 9, 606 less than there were ten years ago. Of this number 327 are community unit districts. The original law permitting the formation of a community unit district was enacted in 1947. It provided that an election be called at which time the voters would decide whether or not they wanted such a district. A petition for the election must be signed by 200 or more legal voters of the district; a maximum tax rate not to exceed $1. 50 for educational purposes and 25 i for building purposes was to be established; the territory for the new district must be compact and contiguous, must have at least 2000 inhabitants, and must have an assessed valuation of six million dollars or more. Individual school buildings are known as "attendance centers. " These must be provided for grades one through twelve, and free transportation must be provided for all pupils living over one and one-half miles from a school center. School libraries Fri, 01 Jan 1954 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/2142/1433 The School Library Supervisor at the State Level Douglas, Mary Peacock The problems confronting the school library supervisor fall in a pattern of categories although there is much overlapping. This chapter deals with some of the problems which stand out under these various headings: I - Understanding the state as a whole and its needs. II - The supervisor's capacity for the job. Ill - The supervisor's responsibilities. IV - The supervisor's use of time. V - The Supervisor's Techniques. VI - Evaluating the supervisor's program. School libraries Fri, 01 Jan 1954 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/2142/1432 Supervision in the modern school Dodds, B. L. The concept of what is involved in supervision in the school has changed radically within recent decades. Typically it is often assumed that this change is entirely a result of a change in attitude or point of view described by the term "democratic" supervision as contrasted with "autocratic" supervision. This is too simple an explanation of the changes which are taking place. Certainly there is a greater knowledge and sophistication today concerning group action and the means of securing cooperative work which certainly lends support to a type of supervisory program which calls upon people to work as a group rather than under the domination of one individual. However, these changes in general cannot be understood without examining briefly some of the general trends in organization of American public schools. In particular it is pertinent to make some observations concerning four developments which have affected supervisory organization. These may be briefly summarized as follows: (1) Changes resulting from the increasing complexity of our schools arising from the increase in the number of programs, services, and offerings now being made available. (2) Changes arising from the presence of more highly specialized and better prepared staff at both the operational and supervisory level. (3) Changes resulting from better understanding of the complexity of human relations as they affect supervision. (4) Changes evolving from new patterns of administrative and supervisory staff organization. School libraries Fri, 01 Jan 1954 00:00:00 GMT