The Wiekamp Resource Commons (WERC) is a curriculum based library designed to support the Indiana University South Bend School of Education by providing core collection educational materials for pre-service and practicing preschool through 12th grade teachers. The WERC provides a wide variety of high quality instructional materials for inspection, review, evaluation and utilization in the implementation of instructional plans. The collection reflects cultural diversity and promotes respect and appreciation for global cultures and communities. Materials covering educational research, theory, and history are located in the Franklin D. Schurz Library. The ERC serves as a state textbook adoption site maintaining a collection of textbooks currently used in area schools.
Purpose
The collection development policy for the Wiekamp Educational Resource Commons serves as a written guideline for the appropriate selection and de-selection of materials to support the instructional, learning, and research needs of the students and faculty in the School of Education in accordance with National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) and State of Indiana academic standards.
Materials for the Wiekamp Educational Resource Commons are collected according to the existing collection development mission and policy of the Schurz Libraries: to acquire and maintain the information resources necessary to support the teaching and scholarly mission of the campus. Because the WERC contains a specialized and narrowly defined collection, this policy is intended to address those unique needs.
The WERC collection is intended to primarily serve the School of Education students (graduate and undergraduate) and faculty.
The WERC also serves all Indiana University South Bend students, faculty, and staff, local educators, and area residents from the Michiana community.
The Wiekamp Educational Resource Commons is located in Education & Arts Building, Room 2010.
Monographs: Hardbound editions are preferred. Items ordered in paper may be selectively bound if heavy use of the item is anticipated.
Textbooks: Current materials published within the past five years are collected in all major curricular subjects for grades K-12. The WERC serves as one of ten public adoption review sites for Indiana and receives sample copies of the textbooks from educational publishers selected by the Indiana Department of Education. The textbook collection reflects the texts used in the public, private and parochial schools in the region, and schools in which students from the IUSB School of Education receive field placements. Textbooks adopted by local Indiana schools may be acquired comprehensively, while other exemplary texts are selectively collected.
P-12 Magazines/Serials: TheWERC subscribes to magazines which provide teaching aids and reproducible masters for use by pre-service and Michiana teachers.
Children and Young Adult Literature: The WERC collects and maintains a representative collection of children's and young adult literature. The collection includes fiction, nonfiction, picture books, folk and fairy tales, plays, poetry, and curriculum set readers appropriate for preschool through 12th grade. The WERC literature collection supplements the children and young adult literature collection in the Schurz Library.
Teaching Activity Materials: A collection of professional teaching materials providing ideas and activities for lesson planning and curricular development is maintained in the WERC. All major curriculum areas and grade levels are represented in accordance with the needs of the Indiana University South Bend School of Education.
Reference Materials: Educational reference materials are primarily shelved in the Schurz Library Reference Collection or are available from the Library's web page. The WERC contains a small reference collection composed of Facts on File books, dictionaries, and Indiana Educational Standards.
Media Materials: The collection is represented by a variety of formats. Materials collected may include instructional games, posters, kits, puppets, transparencies, video recordings, sound recordings, or manipulatives.
Tests: Due to the licensing restriction of most education, counseling, and psychological tests, such instruments cannot be actively collected. However, tests without usage restrictions may be selectively acquired in support of the curriculum. Donated tests will be accepted from faculty. Because of the licensing restrictions, access to the existing test collection is limited to faculty with appropriate licensure or graduate students under direct faculty supervision. It is imperative that use of the test collection be limited to insure that the validity of the instruments is not compromised.
Electronic materials/Educational Software: The WERC strives to maintain a representative collection of curriculum content-based software used in school settings from preschool through 12th grade. System requirements for selected software are stringently reviewed before purchase. Application software is purchased and maintained by the Indiana University South Bend Information Technologies Department.
The School of Education faculty and the Schurz librarians are encouraged to recommend materials for the WERC collection to help develop a balanced and useful collection serving the needs of the IU South Bend campus. An allocation of library funds is set aside for the purchase of WERC materials recommended by the School of Education faculty. The Collection Development Librarian and the WERC Supervisor work together as liaisons between the Schurz Library and the School of Education faculty. After initial approval by the WERC Supervisor, recommendations for purchase are given to the Schurz Library Collection Development Librarian for final approval.
Items selected should receive favorable reviews in the professional library or education literature. Items not reviewed will be subject to professional judgment based on the scope, intended audience, author’s credentials, accuracy of content, literary style, physical format, value to the collection, and cost.
The following additional criteria will be reviewed when considering the physical format:
safety or health considerations of manipulatives
number of simultaneous users
size of material, storage needs, and maintenance issues
special equipment requirements
durability
Software system requirements: Due to licensing and system requirements software may be subject to additional review & justification before purchase is approved.
Languages: The collection is primarily in English with a representative sample of foreign language materials, and bilingual editions of textbooks.
Chronology: Emphasis is on current teaching materials and educational trends.
Geographical Emphasis: Educational methods and approaches used in the United States are strongly emphasized. Materials issued or published by the Indiana Department of Education as well as area school corporations are selectively collected.
Cultural Diversity: Materials are selected to reflect cultural diversity and to promote respect and appreciation of all cultures.
Curricular and subject treatment: Materials shall be appropriate for all subject areas related to pre-school through 12th grade.
Multiple Formats: The WERC will consider the purchase of multiple formats, if the additional format has sufficient added value.
Multiple Copies: The WERC will purchase one copy of an item unless there is a need or justification for an additional copy. In most cases, no more than two copies will be purchased.
The WERC collection includes: audio-visual, electronic and print materials on pedagogical approaches and techniques, instructional aids, Indiana Standards Resources, literature for children and young adults, elementary and secondary textbooks, a sample test collection, curriculum materials, and a selective collection of educational software.
The WERC welcomes gift donations. Gift materials will be reviewed for addition to the collection following the same criteria used to select materials for purchase. Materials not chosen for the WERC Collection will be sent to the Schurz Library for further decisioning. Materials not added to either the WERC or Schurz Library collections, without specifications to be returned to the donor, will be included in the Friends of the Library’s Annual Book sale.
A periodic evaluation of the collection will be performed in order to remove or replace materials which are no longer useful. The following guidelines have been developed to aid in the weeding process with final decision concerning the removal or replacement of materials given by the WERC supervisor.
poorly bound volumes: soft, pulpy and /or shoddy binding
poorly printed works
books of antiquated appearance which might discourage use
materials with missing or broken pieces (audio visual, kits)
software no longer compatible with existing operating systems
The Wiekamp Educational Resource Commons accepts and adheres to the principles of intellectual freedom endorsed by the American Library Association and complies with all copyright laws.
