Reflection - jobbers, sources, etc

In our school district representatives from jobbers are not allowed to come into our schools to discuss resources with TLs. However, TL’s are welcome to use whichever jobber they would like to order resources of their choosing. The TL in our school uses a variety of them and she uses ULS quite a bit and from looking at it seems like a good resource for the TL. In some cases she uses ULS to get ideas for book suggestions. Then she will go to a book store to take a look at the physical material herself, especially if she has a particular need in mind. For example, she wanted to address one topic in the grade 6 curriculum. The topic was drugs and she wanted to look at the resources herself to ensure that they were written at the grade 6 readability level as opposed to high school. After looking at the resource she may still use ULS to order from, but at least she has a clear idea of the resource she wants. In our district all cataloguing is done by our central service so the materials the TL orders just get shipped there for processing and then returned to our school, usually within a month.  Our TL does also purchase items from bookstores herself and then she searches within our system for the MARC records to see if they can be copied from another school. If no other school has the resource then she completes an online form from our central processor, and sends in a copy of the cover of the book, title page, and the verso. A full MARC record will be created and entered into the system within two weeks.

I have made a couple of observations from looking at the resources listed in this week’s learning module. If I were interested in ordering eBooks for my library, Follett has eBook bundles grouped by various topics that would be interesting to have a closer look at. One thing that I found interesting from looking at ULS is a listing of Canadian Aboriginal Books for Schools. If I were interested in purchasing Canadian materials this is where I would start. World Cat would be an interesting resource to use as it has an increasing amount of records for electronic resources and digital objects. I did an advanced search in z39.50 and found that it linked to MARC records very quickly and easily. If I needed to find MARC records for a resource this is definitely I source I would go to.

Getting resources to the students would be of primary importance to me if I were a TL. In my school district, if I can’t locate a MARC record within my school district for a book I have in hand, then I can just submit some information online on a form from our central server. This will allow a brief record of the book to be entered into the system. The book can then be loaned out to students while a full record is being created and entered into the system at a later date. I think it is most important to get materials into the hands of our students when they need it – the full MARC record can wait. If students have to wait too long for materials this may discourage them from using the library and this is the opposite of what we want to happen.