Media specialists must work toward the academic success of all students,addressing the information needs of everyone in the learning community. One pillar enabling this responsibility is a balanced collection that reflects our multicultural society through diversity of format and content.  To pull off this difficult task, you will be expected to analyze, evaluate, and then carefully select items for your collection. You need several skills in order to select instructional materials:

This assignment helps you with the first 3 skills, and exposes you to the fourth (which you will apply in your Final Project).

Library media specialists will often have the opportunity and need to evaluate materials firsthand before purchase, although these informal reviews may never be written down.  Also, library media specialists may wish to contribute to professional magazines by reviewing materials and having these reviews published; there are never enough reviewers for the many items published each year.  Part of your challenge is keeping abreast with new materials. You can accomplish this through your connections with the larger library world - public, academic, and special libraries, and other information centers -- and through professional organizations and publications.
 

Choose 2 items that upon first inspection might be suitable for a media center. These items should be in two different categories from below:
 

• work of fiction (book, video, etc.)
• work of nonfiction (any format)
  
• digital resource - computer software, online resource, etc.

Types may overlap, but your two items should clearly represent two different categories.  For example, you might select a picture storybook and a video about geology to review.  You might choose items that would be suitable for your preferred aged range, or you may deliberately want to sample outside of your familiar age-group territory. Study (read) the item, and form a professional opinion about its quality and the possible contribution it might make to a school's instructional program.  You should also study several reviews published in school library journals or children's literature journals as examples (School Library Journal, Book Report, Hornbook, etc.).

Past classes have felt a little squeamish about criticizing the honest hard work of successful authors. They have expressed the feeling "Who am I to criticize them?"  Keep these thoughts in mind: no product is ever perfect. It is the duty of reviewers to point out shortcomings. Even imperfect materials can be highly useful to media programs if their weaknesses are known.  Also, review with a given target group in mind; how useful is this item for your media center? The "verdict" will vary according to the individual program. Further, most any critical judgment can be appropriately expressed in professional language especially when strengths are likewise described.  Finally, as a practicing media specialist, you will be the best possible expert to write reviews like this. In fact, some journals prohibit all but practicing media specialists from writing their reviews.

 
After looking at instructional reviews from several sources, decide which journal's review format you would like to use for this assignment. Provide a sample review from the journal.  Then write reviews of your  materials, closely following the journal format you selected.    Follow the recommended word count for the journal.  Self-assess your reviews using the rubric below.

Submission Details
Include:

• Hard copy of two IMRs
  
• Include one or more sample reviews from the journal(s) you emulated
• Submit two copies of the rubric, filling each in with your self-assessment
  
• Post the IMRs to your assignment page.  Preferred: one link per review, with the title of the item as the link.