This summer, JMU Libraries’ Pre K-12 Collection made the move to Memorial Hall, along with the College of Education’s Educational Technology and Media Center (ETMC).  Previously, the collection was located in the basement of Carrier Library.  Much more was involved than simply packing up and moving the books, however.

Extensive work was done to upgrade the children’s and young adult literature collection.  During the first phase of the project, over 1,000 children’s books from the ETMC were transferred to Carrier Library for integration into the JMU Libraries’ Juvenile Collection. Next, significant award-winning titles were identified and individual copies were repaired as needed, so they may continue to be enjoyed for years to come.  All other books in the collection were evaluated on an individual basis.  Many factors went into assessing the value of each book to the JMU community -- physical condition, quality of literary content, accuracy of non-fiction content, age-level appropriateness, relevance to Virginia Standards of Learning, and the overall extent of the subject coverage in the collection.  A few books were found to be good candidates for Special Collections, others required new labels or processing to improve catalog entries, and still others were withdrawn to improve the overall usefulness and quality of the holdings.  After all these improvements, at the end of July the 13,000-volume juvenile collection was moved to its new home in Memorial Hall. 

The Pre K-12 books are now housed together with other teaching materials in the ETMC, Room 7260 Memorial Hall.  The former Harrisonburg High School library provides a welcoming, attractive, and accessible environment for both future teachers and JMU families to browse and select great books for young people. We hope you will soon have the opportunity to visit.

Staff who worked on PreK-12 Collection processing (top row):  Glenn Huffman, Claire Clemens, Sean Crowley; (front row) Judy Anderson, Darlene Newman, Karen Milne, Jennifer Culley, Christine Gearhart, and student Kaitlin Connors.