Expanded center lets future teachers access latest texts

A new era has begun in the Curriculum Collection at the Library that will benefit Sacramento State students and the community.

The K-12 Curriculum Collection will greatly expand its educational works now that it has been designated as a Learning Resource Display Center by the California Department of Education. This means that every year Sacramento State’s library will receive free copies of all K-8 instructional materials the state adopts on specific subjects. It will receive a complete collection of one subject per year until all subjects have been rotated through and the cycle begins again.

In California, learning materials for kindergarten to eighth grade go through a state-level education adoption process that evaluates materials against subject content standards. This process occurs once every seven years for each “core” subject. When textbooks are finally adopted they are used in elementary classrooms.

Roz Van Auker, a Sacramento State education librarian and director of the Learning Resource Display Center, says that to have these materials on campus is an asset to students. “We are training so many teachers. This is a resource that future teachers really need, and not just for the books. We also receive CDs and videos.”

The library has always bought K-12 curriculum materials for teacher training but limited funding has kept the library from being able to expand the collection to its full potential. Van Auker says that because of the budget, she was always trying to get publishers to donate books to the curriculum collection. And there was also the issue of not picking the most recent or best textbook since the adoption process for textbooks takes several years. “As a Learning Resource Display Center we are now not only getting the best materials but also the most timely,” says Van Auker.

Knowing the materials that are currently being used in the classrooms is important to student teachers because they get a sense of the textbook selection process, and they get to observe what materials teachers are currently using, Van Auker says.

The first subject matter set the new center received this year was health and next year the library will receive history/social studies. Van Auker believes that having a Learning Resource Display Center in the library will also strengthen ties in the community.

“Sac State sends student teachers into surrounding communities,” Van Auker says. “While they are being mentored by those already in the field they will be able to share this resource with their new colleagues.”

Additionally, because the Sacramento State library is open longer hours than other libraries in the area, this is a resource that can be helpful to community members who have been helpful to our students, Van Auker says.

“In a sense, it is a way that we get to give back to the community for their contributions to our future teachers.”

— Chris Jansen