Giving Our Students A Voice In The Collection Development Of Our Library With The New Mackin Compendium App

With spring here and the end of the school year approaching, it is also time for us to do one more round of gathering ideas and reviews for books we might want to add to our collections in the library.

The most important thing to me as I place orders and add new books is to listen to the voice of our students and get their input on the books that we choose.  I always want to fill the library with the books they want to read, the authors they love, and the illustrators who inspire their creativity.

I love sharing School Library Journal with them every month.  They enjoy looking through all of the new books as they scan the covers and read the reviews.  We also check out websites with reviews, follow authors and illustrators, and share the books we have seen at bookstores and in other libraries.

And one of the best places for all of us to go is the Mackin Compendium app.

Last week my friends at Mackin Educational Resources announced something very special for the Spring.

I was so excited to see that they have released a new Mackin Compendium App just in time for us to use as we make our choices.

Last year when they released the first version of the Compendium App, we couldn't be more excited....It was like nothing we had ever seen.  But now....This app is even better!

For some of you, perhaps you don't know what Compendium is.....So let me tell you and share a little information from the Mackin Educational Resources website.

Compendium is unique to Mackin....and one of my favorite resources as a teacher librarian, educator, and someone who loves books, authors, and illustrators.  Above you can read all about what makes it so unique and special.

With the new Spring 2014 issue, there are a few things that make it even more awesome!  

As you open the app, there are several choices.  

By "Browsing the Current Issue", you will be taken into all of the different area including the grade levels, nonprint, other, and Mackin Recommends.....which I personally LOVE.  

It was fun to watch the fourth graders in the library as they went to the different sections.  

They opened up School Library Journal and also used the books on the new book shelf to start their searching.  Once in the Compendium app, they let the reviews guide their research for new books.  

And with this new app, there is one element that is going to be very helpful to us...."My Faves".  

                           
By each title, you will see a purple button that says "Adds to Faves" with a heart by it....Just click on that to add to your "My Faves" list.  You will click on the "Remove Fave" to take it out of your favorites as well.

It is also easy to "Delete all annotations" at the bottom of each list.  This is a quick way to start again.

The students love this new feature.  Not only is it fun for them to create their "My Faves" lists,  it also gives them ownership and a voice in this process.  

Once their lists are created, they can even email the list by clicking on the little letter in the right hand corner of the app. 

I received several lists like the one above in my email.  I love being able to go through what they have sent me to create lists of books to order within my Mackin account.    

Over the last week, I also used the new app a lot on my spring break.  My family and I went to Disney World where we spent a lot of time standing in line for autographs from all of the characters and for the attractions.  

With the new Mackin Compendium app I was able to browse through the current issue and mark books I thought would be something great for us to add to our library collection.  

I also sent a few of my own lists to my associate and myself.  This is one element that is going to be very helpful as a time saver and collection development tool.  

As you can see, the new app from Mackin rocks!  It brings wonderful new books to our fingertips and gives us the information we all need to enrich our collections.

You can download the Mackin Compendium Spring 2014 app on iTunes, Google Play and Amazon's Kindle.