The Collection's at the Core

Book excerpt: Common Core standards, OER, STEM, and collection development—where to begin? This book investigates these critical topics together to give you the power to transform your collection and practice and put your school library at the center of STEM. Curricula that focus on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) areas of study aren't just important for furthering competency and careers in these fields; STEM helps ensure that future generations include inventive and critical thinkers. Digital resources offer a current, exciting direction to involve school librarians with their STEM teachers. With its specific focus on open digital multimedia learning resources, this book will enable school librarians to take advantage of this opportunity and evaluate, build, and maintain their STEM collections. The book comprises three sections: an overview of policy initiatives; a thorough exploration of STEM education policy, digital materials, and collection considerations; and detailed explanations of strategies for collection development and promotion. You'll learn how to perform a collection analysis to determine the age and extent of your STEM collections and make priorities for enriching them with appropriate digital multimedia resources as well as how to classify resources using Dewey and Sears and with regard to the Common Core State Standards and the Next Generation Science Standards.