When Perceptions Don’t Match the View: Reimaging Existing Collections

“I can’t find what I need.” Words every librarian dreads. What do you do when a collection isn’t serving your population as well as you thought? At Sam Houston State University (SHSU), two librarians discovered that our pre-service educators’ needs were not being met. An immediate need for state approved textbooks and high-quality STEM picture books was exacerbated by a general lack of awareness of library resources. The solution? Create an Instructional Materials Center within the central library building. Collocated with an updated Children’s Collection reflective of a school library, development of the IMC included relocating instructional materials from the main collection into an Instructional Materials Collection, creating an EC-12 State-Approved Textbook Collection, and adding additional seating to create a reservable instructional space. In this session, we will discuss how we identified the problem, determined the best solution, developed a plan, and the relationships we fostered along the way to ensure a smooth deployment. Presenters will also share what they learned in the process and the feedback received from our pre-service educators, their professors, SHSU College of Education administration, and local in-service educators.