SMP 3: Services

Jessica Horton and Megan Koerner

FRIT 7331

Dr. Stephanie Jones

September 30, 2019

The media center at Esther F. Garrison School for the Arts offers a wide variety of services.

These services include services for diverse patrons and all school stakeholders. According to the

American Association of School Librarians, there are five distinct roles for the modern school

media specialist: “Teacher, Information Specialist, Instructional Partner, Program

Administrator, and Leader” (2013). The services that the Garrison Media Center provide align

closely with our media specialist’s roles. Our media specialist provides Story Time for our

younger learners, and age-appropriate library skills lessons for students of all grade levels, Pre-

Kindergarten through Eighth Grade. In this role as a teacher, she is required to write lesson

plans, and is observed as part of the Georgia Teacher Keys Effectiveness System (TKES).

Additionally, as an information specialist, our media specialist does research for students and

faculty, along with assisting and guiding students in their individual project. Fulfilling the role of

an instructional partner, the media specialist assists teachers in selecting appropriate software

and hardware for lessons, and is a resource for our building on the subject of integrating

technology in instruction. She also helps select books for teachers to support the standards they

are teaching. Further, as our program administrator, our media specialist is the keeper of

technology in our school. She maintains an inventory of all technology in the building, and loans

items as needed. Of course, she also maintains our book and periodical collection, and creates a

warm, welcoming center for learning. Our media specialist makes sure that there are services for

all students, including students with different abilities. This year, Garrison became the school

for all three visually impaired students in our district. Due to this being the case this year, our

media specialist greatly increased the offerings for these three students. We now have an

extensive collection of Braille books, and provide audiobooks for our students through

BookShare.
 The circulation policy for Garrison School for the Arts’ media center is the same for all

students first through eighth grades, but slightly different for Pre-kindergarten and Kindergarten

students. First through eighth graders may check out up to two books for a two week period. On

the fifteenth day, books that are not renewed are considered overdue. Pre-kindergarten and

Kindergarten students have the same two week timeframe, but may only check out one book at a

time. Teachers may check out unlimited materials for an open ended period of time. At this

time, parents do not have the ability to check out materials. If materials are repeatedly returned

damaged, check out privileges may be suspended. There are no overdue fees, however, if a book

is lost, the parent must pay the replacement cost of the book. Damaged books may also incur a

small fee. E-books are checked out on devices that remain in the media center, so there is no

policy about when they must be returned since they are only read in the media center. Students

may come in and use one of the desktop computers in the computer lab area, but must sign in and

have a pass from a teacher to do so.

The Garrison Media Center opens at 7:15 am, a full 45 minutes before the first class of

the day begins. During this time period, a few of our EIP (Early Intervention Program) and GEP

(Gifted Education Program) teachers staff the media center for tutorials and enrichment. The

media center is open without interruption until 2:30, which is twenty minutes before dismissal

begins, which allows students time to return to class. When the school day ends, the media center

is then utilized for club and faculty meetings. The media center operates with a flexible schedule.

In the recent past, our media center used a Google Form for teachers to submit a scheduling

request. However, our media clerk reports that it became a problem, as some teachers would

submit a request for a time period of 5 to 10 minutes later (L. Richburg, personal

communication, September 26, 2019). This did not allow the media center staff adequate time to
prepare for the class. Now, scheduling is done via email. The teacher emails the media clerk or

media specialist, and must receive a confirmation that their request has been added to the master

calendar before reporting to the media center. The computer lab area is also reserved in this

manner.

Our media center provides lessons throughout the year to all students on copyright and

creative commons. Students are well versed in ethical use and intellectual freedom. However,

there is no instruction provided to teachers on copyright responsibilities, nor are there online

links regarding these topics. A policy that is recommended for our media center is to have an

intellectual property rights/ethical information workshop during pre-planning each year so that

every teacher has an annual update. Further, it is recommended that our media center’s website

is updated to include links to information about these topics. Suggested links include

www.commonsense.org and www.creativecommons.org. Student privacy is maintained with

computer screens that are not visible to students checking out materials, and Lexile levels are

likewise not visible to other patrons.

Overall, our media center’s philosophy as described in the mission and vision statements

does align with the policies in place. However, there are some areas of disconnect between the

policies and the actual operations in the media center. For example, our media center has made

strides in changing the environment from a “room filled with books” to a learning commons, but

there is still the tendency to focus on book checkout and cataloging rather than learning support.

As mentioned in The Indispensable Librarian, the learning commons is a place where there is

authentic learning taking place and being showcased (pg. 113). Through this, the library could

also take further strides in making sure that it truly does speak to all learners that attend the

library. As mentioned above, there are a few different types of learners who come in to receive
services such as enrichment, but that the media clerk should also make sure that other learners

are included as well. In addition, there is an abundant amount of E-book and Web 2.0

applications available for our learners, the students do not have the ability to bring their own

technology to the media center. As a 21st Century media center, one of the aspects that should be

well thought of is how the students are able to access their own technology within the library.

The Indispensable Librarian mentions that there is a strong push in technology with the digital

world and that libraries should have a wireless infrastructure to allow charge their devices (pg.

113). One aspect that should be looked at through Garrison Media Center is if there are enough

outlets to support the BYOT to the library. To conclude, Garrison Media Center needs to add

more to their learning commons to support the 21st century learners, and they also need to

consider how they will add in a BYOT to ensure that students are able to access information to

support their projects.

 Works Cited

American Association of School Librarians. (2013). Empowering Learners: Guidelines for

School Library Media Programs. Chicago, IL.

Johnson, D. (2013). The Indispensable Librarian: Surviving and Thriving in School Libraries in

the Information Age Second Edition. Linworth Publishing Company.