The book buying process at FCHS

When you walk into the FCHS library, you’ll see thousands of books, just as you would expect in a school library. But have you ever wondered where those books come from, or how they get chosen? Those books weren’t just chosen at random. There is a process behind the purchasing of books at FCHS, including a lot of criteria that a book must meet to be chosen for the library.

“We consider the publication date, science and medicine change all the time, so keeping up-to-date is a must,” said FCHS librarian Ann Jennings. “We also have to constantly be taking out-of-date books out of the collection. Some books are physically worn out, or are not as popular anymore, or have become inaccurate over time as advances are made. We have a schedule of ‘weeding’ (taking books out of our collections) where we look at certain sections of our library in a given year. We have to decide which books stay or go. Then we have to decide if we [should] repurchase a new copy of the same book or if, especially if it is nonfiction, we need to replace it with a more up-to-date version,” she said.

Another factor in their book choices has to do with the school body. “Our collection should represent the population of our school. Readers should see themselves in our books, but also be able to walk in other people’s shoes too,” Mrs. Taylor explained.

Jennings noted that she and fellow librarian Shannon Taylor periodically email staff and students asking for recommendations, and they have an embedded Google Form on their website, which can be accessed by going to fchslib.weebly.com, where they take requests.

“We may not always buy requested items, as they have to be vetted by us and appropriate for our school. Often, we get ideas of books or authors to look into through informal conversations with students and staff,” Jennings explained. “We also look at our school’s Program of Studies each year and add books that correlate with the courses being taught, as well as what clubs, sports, and extracurricular activities are being offered, we then order books on those subjects to enhance what is going on in and out of the classrooms,” said Taylor.

Jennings said they can also run reports through their Follett Destiny catalog system that tells them the least and most checked-out books of the year, which also gives them an idea about what to buy or not buy.

In addition, the librarians check various lists of book awards, such as the Virginia Reader’s Choice, YALSA, Printz, and National Book Awards “We keep checking those lists yearly and try to add award-winning books to our collection if they make sense for our library,” said Jennings.

The librarians are connected with librarian groups virtually (through Facebook groups and BookTok) and through professional associations like the Virginia Association of School Librarians (VAASL) which hold conferences where they can listen to other librarians and authors who speak on topics that are relevant to high schools. Jennings and fellow librarian Shannon Taylor also attend a conference called “What’s New in Young Adult Literature.”

Once they’ve identified books which they are considering purchasing, do they have to actually read the books? “We use the Follett Destiny catalog and order books through their system which allows us to read multiple reviews on each book in one place. Part of the reviews include the reviewer’s opinion on the age range for the book (kind of like the rating system for movies) which helps us, since we could never read all of the books ourselves,” Jennings said.

In fact, the amount of time it takes the librarians to decide on a particular book purchase is far longer than students might expect. “If it looks like we are at our computers a lot, we aren’t playing around. To purchase the number of books we do each year takes a ton of time to research them all. We are constantly researching and making decisions based on the information we find,” said Jennings.

So how many books do they purchase each year for the FCHS library? “It’s hard to say,” said Taylor. “Basically, we get $10 a student as a book budget from the county. There’s about 1500 kids, so there’s about $15,000, and some of that is spent on things like subscriptions (such as research databases). Books on average cost about $19 for fiction books and more for non-fiction, and depending on the topic, it can be pretty pricey. So far this year, we have bought about 400 books,” she said.