School Libraries and Information Literacy FAQs
Accessioning
What resources am I required to accession through OASIS?
The range of resources that should be accessioned through the library will partly be determined by the policy of the school. Such a policy is developed in consultation with the principal and other members of the school. A library committee can help in the development process.
As a general rule you will be required to accession all resources purchased by the library, and professional resources purchased by grade, faculty and key learning area (KLA) groups. Reference copies of Departmental resources, for example, syllabuses and the Literacy & Numeracy Strategy documents, should be accessioned through the library. More and more schools are choosing to accession all computer software, including CD-ROMS, through the library as OASIS Library provides an excellent vehicle for meeting audit requirements.
Remember that accessioning the resources through the library does not mean that they need to be housed in the library. If material is housed elsewhere in the school, responsibility for stocktake and management of those resources can be assumed by someone else.
What do I do about resources stored in other parts of the school?
Housing resources such as faculty teacher reference or computer software, for example, in other parts of the school can be an efficient way of making resources available to teachers. OASIS Library makes this process very easy through the ability to assign different locations. Audit requirements for tracking resources are met and responsibility for management and stocktake of these resources can be assumed by other teachers.
What about text books?
OASIS Library can cope with class sets of text books. However, it is not compatible with the teaching and learning role of the teacher-librarian.
If large numbers of class sets of text books are added to OASIS Library, this would have the overall effect of creating problems with loan limits for students, overdue management, stocktake, and statistical reporting.
This will create problems in providing students and teachers with efficient access to resources supporting the teaching and learning program of the school.
It would also be a source of frustration for users where large numbers of such resources are not available for loan. Issues of responsibility for, and workload engendered, in processing large numbers of resources not available to day to day users would also need to be addressed.
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