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Teaching Resource Center Collection Policy

Purpose

The Teaching Resource Center (TRC) is a collection focused on educational materials for use with children from preschool through grade twelve. It supports the undergraduate and graduate curriculums in the following departments:

  • Curriculum & Instruction
  • Technology Education
  • Career & Technical Educator Preparation
  • Educational Leadership

Institutional Context

The TRC collection development policy is coordinated with the Penfield Library Collection Management Policy. Although development of the TRC collection should be mindful of the criteria outlined in the library’s collection development policy (i.e. relevance to the curriculum; timeliness; representation of diverse cultures, classes, races, sexes, genders, abilities, and national origins; etc.), additional criteria specific to the TRC are outlined in the following sections of this policy.

In all other regards (i.e. deselection, collection maintenance, etc.), the TRC collection development policy shall follow the procedures outlined in the Penfield Library Collection Management Policy.

Collection Scope

The collection scope will guide both collection development (i.e. purchase of new materials) and deselection (i.e. removal / replacement of outdated materials).

Subjects

This collection is primarily focused on current materials with practical application in P-12 classrooms. In general, materials should contain one or more of the following:

  1. Teaching strategies, tools, and/or advice
  2. Lessons and/or learning activities
  3. Assessment tools

Whenever appropriate, practices outlined in these materials should have empirical support or validation.

The subject matter should focus on one or more of the following:

  1. A certain group of students (ex. middle school students, students with disabilities, English language learners, etc.)
  2. A specific subject area (ex. literacy, math, social studies), including subject-specific standards (ex. NCSS National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies)

For reference, here are some items in the collection that exemplify the above:

Materials focused on educational theory, history, etc. should be part of the main library collection.

Format

The collection shall consist primarily of print books. Other materials with a practical purpose may be included, such as primary source sets (ex. The Great Depression) or formal assessment tools (ex. School Motivation & Learning Strategies Inventory).

Prior to 2015, the Teaching Resource Collection collected textbooks, teachers’ manuals, manipulatives, media, and software. These will no longer be collected, and existing items will be phased out of the collection as appropriate.

Selection Sources

Priority will be given to purchase requests from faculty in the departments mentioned at the beginning of this document.

Librarians with collection development responsibilities for the TRC may wish to consult the following sources for purchase recommendations:

Last updated June 2024