Acquisitions

This part of our service learning project has been the most fun and the most frustrating.  I love choosing materials for the library - researching, determining which ones are appropriate for our library, and examining the materials.  Finding materials that have 2 professional reviews has been the challenge.  It's strange how the research process works - some days I've had really great luck and will find a few different materials that meet the criteria I'm looking for and sometimes I come up completely empty-handed.  There was definitely a learning curve to the project - learning which selection tools I liked and which ones could lead me to more quality materials.  I've had good success so far using Kirkus reviews as a starting point - most of the time if Kirkus has given a material a positive review then I can also usually find one in Booklist, School Library Journal, or another periodical.  I also LOVE the way Kirkus recommends other materials to look at on the right hand side of it's website, based on what your current material is - I found one of my non-print resources this way.  So far I've found about half of my materials for the list and definitely understand what Dr. Moe was talking about when she said this was not a quick process.