MEDIA CENTER INFORMATION

Teachers may reserve class time on the calendar at the circulation desk to bring entire classes to the media center. Classes may not be sent with a substitute teacher. A planning guide is available for teacher/media specialist completion in order to make the visit most profitable for students. The teacher is responsible for the discipline of his/her class. The staff will assist the teacher and students with finding materials and the use of the equipment. The number of classes using the media center during one class period is scheduled according to the needs of the students; therefore, accurate planning is essential for quality use of media services.

Teachers may send as many as four individual students for library work without having reserved the time on the weekly calendar, and without accompanying them. Students should have a written pass from the teacher. Individual students must sign in and out of the media center at the circulation desk. Individual student visits will not be verified by the media staff if the student has not signed in and out at the desk.

In addition, high-school students have access to the media center during their lunch periods by obtaining a lunch pass from the media center prior to the visit. Students may obtain a lunch pass before school begins in the morning the day of the desired visit, or the day prior to the visit. Students are asked to follow this procedure so that the facilities and personnel can successfully serve classes and individuals. Students will not be admitted without a lunch pass issued by the media center.

The media program is advised and augmented by the school and technology media committees that meet periodically to discuss, goals, budget, and service priorities. The committees are composed of a teacher from each department or grade level, the principal or vice principal, and the media specialist. The representatives are selected annually. Students’ views and suggestions are directed to the media personnel or members of these committees either verbally or in writing. The media specialist is the individual designated responsible for information concerning the use of copyrighted materials in the classroom. Procedures for obtaining clearance for duplicating copyrighted materials may be obtained through the media center.

Each school year many new learning resources are added to already well stocked media shelves. Much work as well as money is invested assuring patrons of access to the latest in educational resources available in print and non-print form. Patrons include students and faculty as well as members of the community at large. The media staff is available to help make the experience of using the media center a rewarding one.

To aid in the patron’s use of the media facilities a brief summary of materials, services, and media procedures follows. Teachers are asked to make their students aware of the following information. Patrons should feel free to direct any further questions or needs to any of the media personnel. Patrons should use with care and pride all the facilities available. The following suggestions will help assure fair and thoughtful use of the available resources.

All materials must be checked out and returned at the circulation desk. All patrons should follow the procedure. Returned books should be deposited in the book slot at the circulation desk. Books are not considered returned until they are deposited in the book slot. A book returned to the shelf without being processed at the circulation desk remains assigned electronically to the patron who failed to return it through the circulation desk. Failure to follow the return procedure will result in overdue charges for the patron.

Books care checked out for a two-week period. If additional time is needed, the book must be returned to the media center to be rechecked. Keeping the books past the due date will result in a ten cents per day fine for the patron. Report cards are held for delinquent books and fines. Students must have school identification cards in order to borrow books from the library. ID cards are made at the beginning of each year without charge. If the card is lost, another card can be made at a cost of $6.00 to the student.

The print reference section (except for magazines) is located on the first floor to the right of the main outside entrance. These materials have limited checkout. Reference books, except encyclopedias, will be checked out for class periods only. Encyclopedias may be checked out at the end of the school day and returned the following morning. Teachers may check out sets of encyclopedias for classroom use. They are to be returned at the end of the day. The teacher who checks out the set is responsible for the return of the entire set to the library. Replacement for any volumes lost is $30.00 per volume.

In the event books are lost or damaged the media staff will determine the extent of the damages and assess patrons for the cost of repair or replacement. The minimum replacement costs for materials are as follows: hardback books, $10.00; paperback books, $5.00; and reference books, $30.00. Full replacement costs for materials priced above these minimums will be charged by the media center. A fee of $5.00 will be charged for barcode defacement or removal.

Teachers are asked to have students check out books for specific class projects in their own names rather than in that of the teacher. The two-book limit per student can be overridden when a class project is involved. Students tend to be more responsible in returning the books when the books are checked out in their names.

Fiction

Fiction books are located on the shelves in front of and to the left of the main entry. They are placed on the shelf alphabetically by the author’s last name. All fiction books are marked on the spine of the book with an F and the first three letters of the author’s last name. Fiction books can be located in the electronic card catalog by title, author, subject, or some key word in the title being typed in the appropriate screen in the card catalog.

Non-fiction books are located to the right of the main entry both upstairs and downstairs. Most of the categories are housed upstairs. Biographies are shelved alphabetically by the subject’s last name. Reference books are marked with an R before the Dewey number.

 Periodicals

The media center subscribes to several newspapers and more than eighty other periodicals. These are available in print for use in the library. In addition, several hundred periodicals are available through electronic subscriptions which patrons may access either form the computer databases or from the microfiche located in the reference section of the media center. These resources may be printed either from the computers or from the microfiche reader/printers. A fee of ten cents is charged to offset the cost of providing the service.

Bound copies of previous years’ copies of periodicals frequently used for research are housed on the mezzanine to the left of the main entry. The area is not open to patrons. Media personnel will retrieve any resources needed form the closed upstairs area. Magazine request slips are located at the circulation desk. After using Reader’s Guide, another print index, or a computerized index, students should write the citation for needed material on a magazine request slip and ask for assistance at the circulation desk. Several databases are available which provide either articles or full-text periodicals from leading publications. Many full-text newspapers are available over the Internet. The daily newspapers available in print in the media center are The Atlanta Journal, The Rome News Tribune, and The Calhoun Times.

Eighteen computers are available for patron use. Ten stations connected to the media network are located on the mezzanine. Eight are downstairs in various locations. Patrons who are not familiar with the procedure for using each should ask the media personnel for assistance. Instructions for the use of each database are available within the programs. Following the instructions on screen should lead the user through each program. All of the databases can be accessed from any networked workstation in the high school or middle school. Most of the licensed databases can be accessed from home in addition to school.

One of the stations downstairs is a multimedia station with access to authoring software, a scanner, a flexcam, a zip drive and a color printer where both students and teachers may prepare presentations. Word processing may be done at eight of the stations downstairs.

Students wishing to download material to a disk must use disks purchased at school. The Media Center has disks for sale at the circulation desk at a cost of $1.00 each. No outside disks or programs may be used on any of the workstations because of the risk of computer viruses.

School equipment is checked out to teachers for daily or for long-term use. The Media Center loans tape recorders, VCRs, video cameras, overhead projectors, slide and filmstrip projectors, laptops, TVs, CD players, LD players, and LCD/Video projectors. Some of the equipment can be checked out for the entire school year. Other equipment is checked out on an "as needed" basis. Teachers are asked to return equipment as soon as they have finished with it. Teachers are responsible for whatever equipment is checked out in their names.

Audio and video duplication are available in the library. Video duplication is also available in the video production lab at the discretion of the teacher.

Reservations for equipment checkout are made on the calendar at the circulation desk. Teachers are reminded that, by law, middle grade students may not move TVs or any other heavy equipment. Teachers need to pick up equipment in the media center the afternoon prior to the day that the equipment will be needed.

Teachers also have access to the following equipment that is located in the media center workrooms:

Laminating machine—limited to teacher use for preserving fragile instructional material. When laminating material is in plentiful supply, students may request materials be laminated at the cost of $1.00 per linear foot.

Binder machine—available for binding single copies of booklets. To bind in quantity, the teacher must order plastic binder supplies.

Letter machine—used for bulletin boards and backboards. Instruction on operation of machine is available on request. Letter dies are not to be removed from the room where the letter machine is stored.

Video Library

The media center houses an extensive video library for teachers to use in supporting classroom instruction. The collection contains videos numbering well over three thousand in the card catalog. All videos housed in the library are specific to the curriculum. They are to be used to augment the curriculum. They may be retrieved on the computer by using the KEYWORD or SUBJECT feature typing one of the words in the title or subject. Videos are checked out at the circulation desk. Videos may be checked out for one week only.

Recently purchased software housed in the library is available for teacher use. Most purchased software is loaded on the file servers for access through the network. Some specific course software is available for check out. All software purchased through the media center is listed in the card catalog. Searching for software is more easily done using the SUBJECT or KEYWORD feature of the card catalog. Teachers are responsible for the software that they check out.

Software that is not the property of Calhoun City Schools System may not be loaded on the fileserver or any of the individual computers. Neither teachers nor students are to load any personal software or software requiring licensing on the computers in the system.