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How does a public library go from owning less than 5 French language books to owning more than 1500 in 3 years? How does a teaching of French language community go from having a scattered number of resources throughout the Peace district to gaining access to over 1500 titles in 3 years? This project began in 2004 when several organizations got together to apply for a federal government grant to explore ways to improve language services for students in French as a second language. The organizations were successful in their grant application to Canadian Heritage for just under $500,000 matching dollars and since that time the project has grown to include several other organizations. The result has been a successful collaboration in our community that includes the local college, the local public library and its regional headquarters plus 5 area school boards. The public library now houses a collection of over 2500 titles that assist teachers in their delivery of French as a second language (FSL), French immersion and Francophone education. For our French reading public our collection now numbers over 1500 items. Like any project, there were several drivers at the start. First, the local community members involved with Francophones and the delivery of French teaching programs in the city saw a need to address resources in Grande Prairie. Second, the provincial government mandated the teaching of FSL for Grade 4 and up. Our schools were not prepared. These groups got together and submitted an application to the federal government for a grant. It was a lot of work but the application was successful and Grande Prairie received over half a million dollars over 3 years to deliver the program. The school boards partnered with Grande Prairie Public Library and Peace Library System (PLS) to process, house and circulate the items, and contracted with a French teacher to do the selection of the materials. During the first year of the project, over $70,000 was spent on resources. During the second year of the project, a facilitator was hired to coordinate the project as it grew in scope enormously and went beyond the selection and ordering of resources; during that year, over $90,000 worth of resources arrived. Also during the second year, French was withdrawn as a language that was supported by the International collection. The library decided to use $10,000 of the Public Library Initiative money to develop the French adult reading collection. The project matched that amount and the items were ordered. Because this ordering was being done by the Library, PLS headquarters became involved because not only were they processing all of the French Resource Centre items, they now had to order and process all of the French adult reading materials. Collection Development How does one order resources for 43 schools each offering a variety of French programs and each experiencing different challenges and strengths? What steps were taken? The Centre... * Contacted the consultants working with Alberta Education and Edmonton Public Schools. Both institutions have recommended resource lists for FSL. * Met with principals in immersion and asked what they needed. * Met with teachers and asked what they wanted to see. * Talked to the librarians at the immersion schools, looked at their material and asked them for recommendations. * Talked to the provincial French bookstores and became informed on what is good, well-liked literature that would be useful for teachers. * Attended several conferences and asked many questions from publishers at the display tables. * Attended many sessions where specific resources were highly recommended. Through this process, the Centre was able to order a collection containing: * All FLS recommended resources for grade 4 through grade 12. * Several series of readers for FSL and Immersion for kindergarten through to grade 8. …
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