Building your Sports Collection

Perhaps the greatest challenge you may face in developing a solid sports collection is deciding what to include from the vast sea of material.  Like the manager of a franchise, you have to decide what pieces will fit best in the collection environment you wish to create.  Oh, and since money doesn't grow on trees, you will have to operate under a "book cap."  Here are some points to consider as you attempt to "beef up" your collection!

Now this is a "stout" sports collection for a high school!!

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What Plays Well

• Classics
• Compelling human interest stories
• Small-town/underdog stories
• Always search for local stories
• Books turned into movies
• Inspirational stories
• Stories that involve a journey of physical or mental proportions
• Stories covered by sports television

Where to get ideas

• General Sports magazines like Sports Illustrated and specific sports magazines like Runner's World.
• NY Times sports section
• Booklist Magazine
• Local papers.  Beat writers often put out books
• Watch ESPN!

Common Core Connections

• Historical context
• Analytical context
• Thematic elements
• Many curricular connections within the stories can be found.  For example:

--Eat and Run by Scott Jurek  focuses on nutrition
--Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand focuses on  history
--The Sports Gene by David Epstein focuses on  science/biology
--Born to Run by Christopher McDougall focuses on culture or science

Bulletin-Board Material

• Create displays around major sporting events
• Run book seminars for coaches using books by influential coaches
• Organize team leadership groups with a book being a discussion builder
• Look into bringing sports authors and figures in for school or group visits