Date Approved

5-16-2003

Embargo Period

5-3-2016

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.A. in School and Public Librarianship

Department

Special Educational Services/Instruction

College

College of Education

Advisor

Shontz, Marilyn

Subject(s)

Children--Books and reading; Elementary school libraries--Collection development; Holidays

Disciplines

Library and Information Science

Abstract

While many Christian holiday books for children are widely reviewed and available from mainstream publishers, it is more difficult to find and evaluate books about non-Christian holidays. Elementary library collections may under-represent non-Christian religious books because of a lack of school library media specialists' personal knowledge about non-Christian holidays. This study surveyed school library media specialists through a written questionnaire about the variety and size of their library's current collection of non-fiction books about non-Christian religious holidays, and determined how school library media specialists approach collection development in this area. The sample and population consisted of 124 elementary public school librarians in Atlantic, Ocean, and Cape May Counties.

Results showed that the collections of non-fiction religious holiday books were not very diverse, with more than half of the books owned reflecting Christian holidays. A large number of school library media specialists considered treatment of material and reading level as important criteria when selecting non-fiction books about religious holidays. Follett's Titlewave was the most commonly used selection source for nonfiction religious holiday books, with almost 80% of respondents using it.

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