Neptune Elementary School Mission Statement: 

Neptune Elementary School provides challenging and engaging standards-based instruction through data driven decisions, collaboration, problem solving, and a shared vision for success.  

Neptune Elementary School Media Center Mission Statement:

The school library media program at Neptune Elementary strives to provide a place where students are engaged and learn to build a love of reading. In addition, the students are provided a place to expand on their literacy skills and use of informational resources based on their grade level curriculum. The teachers work in partnership with the media specialist to implement the curriculum. 

Introduction:

The purpose of a collection development policy is to provide a statement of principles and guidelines used by Neptune Elementary School in its selection, acquisition, evaluation, and maintenance of the media center materials. It is understood that as the school grows and its needs change, so will the collection development policy change to meet these needs. 

Profile/Identification of Users:

Students grades Pre-K-5, as well as faculty, staff, and administrators use the Neptune Elementary School Media Center. At the present time, due to the COVID 19 pandemic, parents have limited access to the Media Center. They can access the online resources, however, do not have access to the facility. The users of the Media Center represent a diverse population of cultures, ethnic backgrounds, and socioeconomic statuses. Additionally, the school offers a variety of ESE (push in and self contained classes), ESOL, and gifted programs.  

Description of the Collection:

Neptune Elementary School was built in 2007-2008 school year. The collection of books and materials at Neptune Elementary School reflects that date, with an average publication date of 2007. The collection includes professional resources, classroom sets of choice literature, leveled reading sets for small group lessons, leveled reading titles for students, fiction, non-fiction, and foreign language titles. The Neptune Elementary Media Center strives to contain a wide variety of print and non-print materials. The collection development plan strives to meet the needs of the teachers, staff, students and parents of the school. Focusing on maintaining a collection that meets the needs and interests of our ever changing population.

Criteria for Selecting Library Media Materials:

The media specialist will strive to maintain a comprehensive collection in the media center that meets the interest and educational needs of its patrons. The collection will enable patrons to find and use information effectively enabling the school to meet its goals. There will be materials representing the multicultural diversity of our population and the varying points of view. The materials will be selected to support the curriculum and instructional programs at the school as well as to meet the needs and interests of the students. The final decisions will be made by the media specialist after seeking the input of the library media center advisory committee, faculty, curriculum specialists, teaching assistants, parents, and students. The following considerations will be used in final determinations of the best resources to include in our collection:

• Support of the curriculum and the educational goals of the school
• Support of the school wide reading program
• Reading levels appropriate for the intended audience
• Appeal to the interests of the library media center patrons
• Favorable recommendations by educational professionals based on preview and actual examination of the materials
• Reputation and significance of the author, illustrator, or publisher
• Contribution to the diversity of the collection on controversial issues
• Contribution to multicultural awareness
• Lasting importance to significance to a field of knowledge
• Support of professional development needs of the faculty 
• Favorable reviews found in standard selection sources, including:

Book Links magazine

BookList magazine

School Library Journal

BookTalk

Bulletin For the Center for Children’s Books

Kirkus Reviews

The Horn Book Guide to Children’s and Young Adult Books

Children’s Books

Education Review

Funding/Budgeting:

The funding resources for the school media center budget will come from the monies allocated by the District from the State, the money budgeted by the school principal, money received from Book Fairs, and donations by private people and organizations. 

Challenging Materials:

Challenges will follow the School Board Rule 4.30+ (included at the end of this collection development plan). The school Challenge Committee will be made up of: the Media Specialist (Katie Goerner), the Principal (Shannon Mahoney), the Assistant Principal (Beth Telemko), the Reading Coach (Sandra Ramirez), MTSS Coach/Reading Interventionist (Stephanie Blake), and classroom teacher/Teacher of the Year for Neptune Elementary (Katie McKenna).

Collection Maintenance/Weeding Plan:

It is the library media specialist’s job to maintain a current and accurate library media center collection. Materials are regularly evaluated using the district weeding criteria and are discarded in accordance with the approved procedures. Materials are discarded if they are obsolete, damaged, or are no longer relevant to the curriculum and students.