School Library Media Programs → Evaluation and Selection

Evaluation and Selection

About Evaluation and Selection of Instructional Materials and Library Books

Evaluation and Selection serves as a coordinating unit for the evaluation of instructional materials and library books by professional staff. These materials support the curriculum and instructional strategies in the schools to meet the diverse learning needs of students.

What Evaluation and Selection Does

  • Coordinates the evaluation of instructional materials and library books for school purchase.
  • Coordinates the evaluation of content area textbooks for school purchase.
  • Maintains a reading room where library media professional staff may review materials prior to selection for use in schools.
  • Maintains the 30-day shelf for examination of newly approved textbooks.
  • Maintains a collection of collection development and evaluation tools to support library media professional staff.
  • Provides guidance for weeding library collections.
  • Facilitates collection development meetings for library media professional staff for the review and evaluation of library books and instructional materials.
  • Selects initial collections for new schools.
  • Secures the appointment of an ad hoc evaluation committee to reevaluate materials whose appropriateness has been questioned by parents or staff of the school community.

Textbook review: 30-day Shelf

The following textbooks are under review until August 14, 2020:

Stamped: Racism, Antiracism and You, Jason Reynolds & Ibram Kendi, ISBN# 9780316453691, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2020.

Genesis Begins Again, Alicia Williams, ISBN# 9781481465809, Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books, 2019

This Book is Anti-Racist: 20 Lessons on How to Wake Up, Take Action, and Do The Work, Tiffany Jewel, ISBN# 9780711245204, Frances Lincoln Children's Books, 2020. 

The following textbooks are under review until August 28, 2020:

Never Caught: The Washingtons' Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge, Erica Armstrong Dunbar, ISBN# 9781501126413, 37 Ink, 2017.

History of Africa, Kevin Shillington, ISBN# 9781137504036, Macmillan International, 2019.

Newly approved textbooks will remain in the Evaluation and Selection Unit for 30 calendar days to permit examination by professional staff and parents before school orders will be honored.