Because my district (#78 Fraser-Cascade - serving Agassiz, Hope & Boston Bar) is very small we do not have centralized library services. I am provided my own budget each year and I do all of my own purchasing and cataloguing. As this was my first year as the TL there was a steep learning curve for this process, especially considering we were desperately "behind the times" in the age of our collection.
As a result of this course, I quickly realized some of the errors I had been making in the cataloguing of materials. Luckily, my acquisitions had focused on Fiction, and the main area where my cataloguing was lacking was in subject and search terms/tagging. I have slowly been working on adding to these records so that the search features of our system can be more effective.
I have several sources for acquisitions, and am not ashamed to admit that the best price has been the most important criteria for me in trying to bring our fiction collection into the 21st century. I buy books at Costco, Walmart and scour used book stores for good quality used books - I found some great Manga and graphic fiction this way, especially since they can be so expensive to purchase new. I know that I do not get library bindings but honestly, do I need the book to last forever? I weeded over 500 titles in September - sure they were in great condition, but no one was reading them.
Now that I am feeling more comfortable in my library surroundings I am exploring the services of companies like Follett and ULS. The librarian before me had been at our school for 20 years and never used jobbers. A librarian at another school in the district told the Follett rep that I was new and he came right over to our school. He was so excited as he said he was told not to bother coming by before. Although I know he was doing his job, I was very impressed that he took the time to come meet me and then set up another time to come by and demonstrate Follett's services. Before his return, I took the time to register with Follett and become familiar with their site. In the 2 hours the rep spent with me on his second visit I was able to use their collection management tool and begin setting up possible purchasing lists. I also loved that all this was FREE! I do not use their cataloguing system and I did not feel pressure to purchase from them - but I did.
There are lots of elements to their site that I like. Of course free shipping is always good, they offer several binding options, I can create different lists and save them to add to or delete, and title searches also tell me if I already have the title or a similar title in my collection. It is also very easy to order with a P.O. I can have them do cataloguing services for me, but I have elected to do these myself. So far this has not been too overwhelming.
As I said in a reply to Michelle's post, we often judge services and web sites as compared to our first positive experience, so Follett's site and services became my standards.
I have not used ULS...yet, but I hope to actually visit their warehouse in June. I am not a fan of their web site. I, like Michelle, find it "dull" and a bit confusing. I believe this is mostly due to my visual likes and dislikes, not really because of the content of the site. For both Follett and ULS I logged in so I was able to see prices and options. ULS does not have as many visuals to accompany each resources and sometimes they only offer one type of binding, whereas Follett seems to always have at least 2 options. I do like that ULS is Canadian but I do not find Follett "overly American" and my site, once logged in, has a Canadian flag at the top to indicate that I am in the Canadian part of their site.
In ULS I also have trouble narrowing my search to high school options. In the "Best Books" selection list, I would like to be able to sort by grade. Instead I have to scroll down to find the books for the grade levels at my school. I do like their selection lists for First Nations books, Canadian authors, and award winners.
I agree with the School Media Specialist information on jobbers when it says that it is important to form a positive relationship with jobbers. I know that ULS will be helpful so I want to get to know them better. I think it is possible, and beneficial to use more than one jobber. This may not be possible in some TLs' situations, but it can at least be a way to compare products, services, and prices.
When copy cataloguing I use a variety of sources including Follett, ULS, Library of Congress and various public libraries. Now that I am better at cataloguing I have my student TAs get the books ready for cataloguing by stamping, labeling and barcoding the acquisitions. Sometimes I will have them start the cataloguing process and save the subject key word work for me. This tends to be done within a week of resources arriving which I think is a pretty quick turn around.
As mentioned on the School Library Media Specialist site, purchasing locally is sometimes the best option. Although I do not have a book store in my community, I do keep my eyes open for book bargains when out and about. I also check the teen sections of Chapters and Kidsbooks and then look for their top choices at less expensive prices.
Because my library and school district are so small, doing my own cataloguing has not been overwhelming, however I do know that I have some re-cataloguing to do once the weeding of our non-fiction section is complete. All of this however, is leading to a better organized and more efficient Learning Commons for our students.
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