Cataloguing

Access point is "a unit of information in a bibliographic record under which a person may search for and identify items listed in a library catalog or bibliographic database."(ODLIS)

As I was browsing our school's library on-line catalogue this week, I came to realize how much this tool could help in the selection of books for primary students by parents.  I teach French Immersion in an area where there is high parent involvement and I often have parents asking about suitable French books for them to read at home with their children.  We have a wealth of French books at the school that parents and students alike could easily access.  I think circulation rates would increase,  too by making the parents aware of the school library's on-line catalogue and promoting it at such events as Meet the Teacher.
I could see some parents looking up books on-line with their children and discussing which books they would like to take out.  On a side note, I realized you need to spell the title, author or subject correctly when using the school library's on-line catalogue.  This could be challenging and frustrating for primary students.  It would be a great feature if like Google the search said "do you mean this?".  I'm sure this must be coming with time.
I also noticed some of the catalogue records needed more information such as summaries written in English for parents as well as identifying the target audience(this is especially important with French material as most often the parent is unaware what is suitable).  I know with my French Scholastic order, the parents appreciate that each of the books is numbered for an appropriate grade level making it easier for selection.  Having said this, I am not sure how this would play out in my district as the processing of books is done at the district level?  I am not clear either whether the teacher-librarian can add to the record herself/himself?   It could be a worthwhile endeavour though, if parents would access it.