Services
Borrowing
Member school libraries can borrow materials and programming kits through YRL. Requested items are delivered directly to your school.
YRL offers curriculum support to supplement your local school library collections. With advance notice, we will deliver relevant and age-appropriate materials to your school. Member school libraries can borrow the following items:
- up to five copies of the same title for a novel study
- up to 20 various titles for specific learning units or subject areas
- supplementary titles for leisure reading (e.g., missing books in a series)
Items can be borrowed for up to nine weeks. Staff will work with you to schedule pickup and delivery, or will mail small numbers of items to your school. To request curriculum support items, please email askyrl@yrl.ab.ca.
YRL kits contain materials that supplement member libraries’ existing collections or can be used for in-library programming. Browse the selections below to learn more.
To request a kit, fill out our Kit Booking Request Form, or reach out to us at kits@yrl.ab.ca. Include in your email any specific dates or timelines (e.g., need it for one weekend; two week loan) and we will do our best to accommodate.
Ordering
Schools can place orders using their allotment funds through our Coordinated Collection Development (CCD) tool.
YRL staff can also help you order specific items or create lists based on the needs of your collection. Please email askyrl@yrl.ab.ca with your requests.
Your library receives an allotment in January based on the annual school population, which can be used to purchase books and audio-visual materials through YRL. We can help you spend your allotment by the December deadline with personalized assistance and our convenient Coordinated Collection Development (CCD) Tool. You can even set up standing orders for popular series or annuals to receive them automatically.
Important dates
- If you wish to receive ordered titles by the end of the calendar year (December), the ordering cutoff is October 31.
- If you wish to receive ordered titles by the end of the school year (June), the ordering cutoff is April 30.
- Updates to standing orders (subscriptions, series, etc.) must be made before the mid-December cut-off date.
On CCD you can browse lists of new and upcoming titles or curated lists created by YRL staff.
Cataloguing and Processing
If you purchase library materials outside of YRL, you can send your items to us on our van run for processing. YRL will apply spine labels, barcodes and Mylar book jackets and your materials will arrive ready to circulate.
- Email askyrl@yrl.ab.ca to let us know you have materials to process and we will schedule a pickup date.
- Place a process-only book flag inside each item being sent to YRL.
- Pack items inside a sturdy box.
- Have the box waiting for pickup in the school office on the pickup date.
- YRL will process materials and schedule a delivery date.
- Completed MARC records will be emailed to you so you can load them into your catalogue.
Book Flags
Book flags let YRL staff know how to process the item when it arrives (e.g., fiction or non-fiction). If you need us to send you the template for your book flags, or if you wish to change anything about how your items are processed, please email askyrl@yrl.ab.ca.
Pickup
To schedule a pickup of materials you have purchased that need to be processed by YRL, email askyrl@yrl.ab.ca or delivery@yrl.ab.ca.
Delivery
YRL offers delivery service with our van run. Here’s how it works:
- For new and processed materials, we will arrange a delivery date with you.
- When booking a kit, delivery and pickup dates will be arranged at the time of booking.
- When receiving curriculum support material, delivery and pickup dates will be arranged at the time of booking.
On occasion, we will mail curriculum support items to your library for quick delivery. These items must be returned via mail as the return postage has already been paid. Directions on how to apply the shipping label are attached to the item when you receive it via mail.
Consulting Services
Library and Development Services Librarians are available by phone, email and in-person to answer your library-related questions. Some common requests for assistance include:
- collection development and organization
- weeding
- purchasing recommendations
- space planning
- technology
They are also able to speak at PD days about YRL services to school librarians, administrators, teachers and support staff. Email askyrl@yrl.ab.ca for more information or to make a request.
Library and Development Services is happy to help you weed and inventory your collection, and help you make a plan for further developing the collection.
To book a weeding or inventory visit, please email askyrl@yrl.ab.ca.
Inventory
If you find that when you run reports you are missing many books, it may be time to conduct an inventory. Library and Development Services Librarians can help you complete the inventory and run reports to track down or remove missing books.
Weeding
Before YRL arrives to help you weed the collection, please ensure that you:
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Have a plan for notifying school staff about the weeding project
- Either let staff look at the collection beforehand and mark things they still want to use, or let them look at books after weeding that are marked for discard and “save” any from discarding. This way you won’t accidentally get rid of an important resource, or you can re-order damaged books that are still useful to teachers.
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Have a plan for storing discarded books
- When we visit, we aim to reduce the collection by 20-25%. This might end up being a lot of books!
- Some ideas for storing books include:
- Spare book trucks to place books on.
- Cardboard boxes to pack up books.
- Empty shelving or tables to stack books on.
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Have a plan for physically marking books as discarded
- Check if a parent or student volunteers can black out the barcodes or stamp the books
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Have a plan for withdrawing the books from Follett/Destiny
- Ensure you put aside time to remove these books from the library catalogue
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Have a plan for disposing of discarded books
- Will they be recycled or given away to students and teachers?
- If you give them away, make sure they are marked as discarded in some fashion so that they don’t end up back in your collection!