Collection & Curriculum Mapping

I really enjoyed reading Chapters 5 & 6 on Curriculum and Collection Mapping in Barbara K. Stripling and Sandra Hughes-Hassell's book Curriculum Connections: Through the Library. The chapters gave me a better understanding of how to go about supporting my school's curriculum and how to help teachers work within the local, state, and national testing standards. I believe that we can move from teaching to the test to teaching with the standards in mind. This might sound like the same thing but I believe that we can help students meet the goals set by the teaching standards and be more creative and efficient in what we teach. These chapters made me see that incorporating the standards into our curriculum and meeting the standards set by local, state, and national standardized tests does not mean that we need to drill and test our students blind, but that we CAN find ways to collaboratively work together and make learning fun and engaging AND still meet the testing objectives.

The information on Collection Mapping also gave me a better understanding of how to approach the management of my collection and how to set goals that will allow me to keep my collection current and more effective for students and teachers. I like the idea of the WEB room with the WEB boxes that teachers could check out to help them with their units. However, I do have some questions about this idea and hope someone out there can answer them for me:

• What exactly goes into the boxes?
• If I pull books and materials to place inside the boxes, won't that reduce the number of materials that I have for circulation?
• Do the contents of the Web boxes have to be catalogue differently?
• Will I have to budget for extra materials and resources for the boxes?

I want to learn more about how to manage my collection through collection mapping or perhaps other ways, especially if I end up in a school that does not offer or require curriculum maps to guide me. Can anyone recommend any resources for me?

Source:

Stripling, B. K. & Hughes-Hassell, S. (2003). Curriculum connections through the library. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited.