Keeping your library up to date

Keeping a school library up to date and well stocked with relevant, diverse, high quality books is an important task. The first step is sorting and auditing your existing stock. Before you begin, the best thing to do is approach your local library service to see what support is available in your local area. Below are a list of school library services available across Scotland. Many school library or outreach services can support you in sorting your library.

The pack below is for teachers and/or parent councils working in a primary school or setting which does not have a schools or children's librarian to support them. Use our practical tools and step-by-step process to help with the process of sorting, clearing and rearranging your library shelves.

As well as an opportunity to remove out of date titles, remember this as a great opportunity to get to know what books you already have. By sorting and rearranging your stock, you, your school staff and volunteers with have a better understanding of what is in your library, what is well-used and loved, where the gaps are and how best to invest limited resources in a targeted way.

Remember, if you have a local public library close by, you can speak to library staff and also ask their advice. Invite them to share their knowledge and expertise as part of this process.

What is in the resource

The resource is arranged into a six step process, to help you work through the stages of sorting your library. The downloadable materials below have been arranged according to the steps in this process.

These are the steps in this process:

• Step 1: Plan and make preparations for your audit
• Step 2: Staff sort and audit books
• Step 3: Get pupils involved in reviewing books (optional)
• Step 4: Organising your library
• Step 5: Recycling unwanted books
• Step 6: Celebrating your library

The main resource pack is a detailed guide, and is for the teachers/staff leading the library audit. Available to download are:

• Main resource pack
• Step 1: PowerPoint to share as part of preparing for your audit.
• Step 2: Library audit questions to guide the staff audit and sorting books.
• Step 3: Big questions bookmarks to get pupils involved.
• Step 4: Bookzilla genre signs to use on your bookshelves as you reorganise your library.