Assignment 1: Evaluation of a Reference Work

Examining “Literary Terms: A Dictionary”

In order to understand the needs of the library learning commons and reference section at SJ Willis Education Centre in Victoria, one must understand the context in which the school exists. This school is made up of three individual schools: Alternative Education, Continuing Education, and Distance Education. Between the three schools the total number of enrolled students is over 1400, but on a daily basis the school may have fewer than 150 students in the building. As such, the library learning commons is a quiet space that houses 4,250 different titles. Within the last year, since the end of January 2017, there have been just over 600 checkouts, including textbooks. Therefore, the reference section is quite small. In fact, the current reference section only includes 74 copies total. Most of the texts in the reference section of the library are dictionaries. Other types of resources included in this section are atlases and thesauruses. Given the available resources to choose from and the circulation and usage of other titles in the reference section, the reference text, “Literary Terms: A Dictionary” will be examined for the purpose of this assignment.

Part One

Evaluating a Reference Material – “Literary Terms: A Dictionary” by Karl Beckson and Arthur Ganz (1993)

Suggestions for rubric from, “Reference Skills for the School Librarian” p. 17-25, Ann Reidling

	Does not Meet	Minimally Meets	Successfully Meets
Publishing Date	Item was published longer than fifteen years ago.	Item was published between five and ten years ago.	Item is newly published, or updates annually (digital resources)
Digitally Accessible	This item is only available in print.	This items is only available in print or in digital and a subscription fee is required.	This item is available in both print and digitally for a subscription fee.
Curricular Connections	The information in this text is outdated and does not relate to the curriculum delivered at the school.	The information in this text is somewhat relevant to the curriculum delivered at the school.	The information in this text is very relevant to the curriculum delivered at the school and supports learning.
Cost	This item is too expensive and significantly impacts the library budget.	This item is expensive, but there is room for it in the library budget.	This item is cost effective and aligns well with the library budget. ($14.95)
Appearance	This item is difficult to navigate (digital texts) and does not visually appeal to readers and patrons.	This item is mostly easy to navigate (digital texts) and its layout, fonts, and colours are mostly appealing.	This item is easy to navigate (digital texts) and its layout, fonts, and colours appeal to the eye.

Relevancy

Literary Terms: A Dictionary (Photo: C.Goes)

Although the information provided in “Literary Terms: A Dictionary” is not invalid or incorrect, the outdated nature of the book is visually apparent. Yet, these terms do relate to secondary English that is being taught within this school and the information within the reference material is considered relevant. However, it is not fully relevant to this level of students. This text appears to be better suited for university level students who are writing commentaries on different terms within writing. Generally, students in upper level high school English courses are given lists of terms to memorize and use and are not expected to identify many terms beyond that.

Purpose

It is difficult to understand the purpose for this text. In order to use it properly students would have to know the term they are going to look up and then look it up. Rather, students may be better suited to a regular dictionary where they could look up the terms as easily. It is not often that teachers would ask students to define literary terms in a standalone fashion. It would seem to be better suited to looking up information in small chunks than using a dictionary for all terms.

Currency

This reference text was first published in 1960. The issue that is available in the library was most recently published in 1993 by Karl Beckson and Arthur Ganz. Although it is not the oldest text in circulation in the library, it is on the older end of things in terms of acceptable reference materials (Reidling, p. 62). I would look to replace the text with something newer in order to be sure that the terms listed in a literary terms dictionary were most commonly used and were not outdated.

Curricular Connections

Currently, in English 10-12 there are direct references to literary terms. Students are expected to know and understand many different literary terms. However, since this item is a “Literary Terms” dictionary, there are many more that students are not required to know. At most, it could be expected that students understand and effectively use about fifty different literary terms. It could be exceptionally overwhelming to attempt to learn and memorize any more than that.

Efficient Use of Library Space

The Beckson and Ganz text itself is smaller than many items on the reference shelf at five inches by seven inches. It does not take up much space in the small reference section. Also, it is only 303 pages, so it is not a hefty text to have in the library. In terms of its place in the library, solely based on use of library space, this text could stay in the collection. It is not a big item and does not occupy much space that could be used for other items.

 Part Two

Source

To replace the copies that are currently in the SJ Willis Education Centre I would like to have the literary terms as a digital resource and a print resource where possible. Frequently, there is  an effort to add information to the Library Resource Centre website so that students can access the reference materials from wherever they are working – upstairs, from home, or in another part of the province. In order to circulate a previously uncirculated text, I would encourage students in online English classes and adult Continuing Education English classes to access it as well. To replace the previous text, The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms, ed. 4, would be most appropriate. This resource was published in 2015, so it is far newer than the reference resource that it is replacing. Also, this new reference has been revised to include terms that modern readers would know such as “graphic novel” (Oxford Reference Online). This resource would appear as one print resource in the library, but there would be access online to the digital copy for online students, adult students, teachers, and other students to access through their district accounts. It would be most helpful to have the dictionary as a digital resource because it could easily be added to an online selection of resources on the school library website. Although directing students away from the physical texts in the library seems strange, if patrons were able to access a text online consistently, then perhaps they would use that source more frequently. Also, by having this as a digital resource versus a print resource, online access could be provided more easily to the distance education students, who make up about 56% of the school population. In addition, the older text, by Beckson and Ganz, is published by The Noonday Press, but the new version is published by Oxford University Press, who is renowned for their dictionaries and reference materials. When evaluating publishers’ dictionaries, Reidling suggests using a “reputable publisher” (p. 62).

Evaluating a Reference Material – “The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms: 4^th Edition” by Chris Baldick (2015)

As suggested by Riedling in “Reference Skills for the School Librarian” p. 17-25

	Does not Meet	Minimally Meets	Successfully Meets
Publishing Date	Item was published longer than fifteen years ago.	Item was published between five and ten years ago.	Item is newly published, or updates annually (digital resources)
Digitally Accessible	This item is only available in print.	This items is only available in print or in digital and a subscription fee is required.	This item is available in both print and digitally for a subscription fee.
Curricular Connections	The information in this text is outdated and does not relate to the curriculum delivered at the school.	The information in this text is somewhat relevant to the curriculum delivered at the school.	The information in this text is very relevant to the curriculum delivered at the school and supports learning.
Cost	This item is too expensive and significantly impacts the library budget.	This item is expensive, but there is room for it in the library budget. (Print version is $16.68 on Amazon, 01/31/18, Digital subscription is $475/year, but includes over 250 Oxford University Reference Titles)	This item is cost effective and aligns well with the library budget.
Appearance	This item is difficult to navigate (digital texts) and does not visually appeal to readers and patrons.	This item is mostly easy to navigate (digital texts) and its layout, fonts, and colours are mostly appealing.	This item is easy to navigate (digital texts) and its layout, fonts, and colours appeal to the eye.

Cost and Acquisition of New Reference Item

As stated above in the rubric, digital access to Oxford’s Reference selections cannot always be done on a title-by-title basis. After reaching out to my area’s Oxford Reference representative, Clarissa Jefferies, I established that the title I was hoping to acquire, The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms, ed. 4, is part of a package of 495 reference titles for $475/year (see Excel document below). While this subscription seems cost effective for the amount of references that would be acquired digitally, it may be unnecessary to have access to so much. It is likely that many of the reference titles included in the package would not be used. On Amazon.ca the print version of The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms, ed. 4 is $16.68 CAD before potential shipping charges and tax. It may be helpful to try the subscription for one year and monitor how much use the digital reference package receives, in addition to replacing the “Literary Terms: A Dictionary” for $16.68.

Subscription Pricing as Provided by Oxford University Press Reference Rep, Clarissa Jefferies (January 31, 2018)

Conclusion

Given the nature of reference texts – high cost, quickly outdated nature, and general large format – having access to similar materials online is helpful. By presenting the information online and in text, students have the choice to how they access the materials. The older version by Beckson and Ganz is not entirely useless, but the fact that there is another reference material available by a reputable publisher that is only a little over two years old, and available in a digital format, lends well to the context in which many of the students in my school will access this information. 

References

Amazon Canada. (2018). The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. Retrieved

February 2, 2018, from https://www.amazon.ca/Oxford-Dictionary-Literary-Terms/dp/0198715447/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1517784589&sr=1-1-fkmr0&keywords=oxford+dictionary+of+literary+terms+4+ed

Beckson, K. & Ganz, A. (1993). Literary Terms: A Dictionary (3 ed.). New York: The Noonday 
            Press. 

Jefferies, Clarissa. E-mail Conversation. January 30, January 31 & February 1, 2018.

Oxford Reference. (2018). “The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms (4 ed.).” Retrieved from

http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198715443.001.0001/acref-9780198715443. February 1, 2018.

Riedling, Ann, Reference skills for the school library media specialist: Tools and tips,

            (Third Edition). Linworth.