University of Georgia
Instructional Technology
School Library Media

Master's Portfolio
Summer 2006

Media Center Philosophy

The responsibility of the library media center is to help all students to become active, interested, creative, and ethical locators, evaluators and users of information so they may solve problems, increase knowledge, and satisfy curiosity.   As one step in this process, the library media center must provide members of the school community with access to information resources and the requisite skills for using them. These resources and skills must support the curriculum and the educational goals of the school. Partnership with teachers ensures the necessary alignment of the library media center program with the curriculum.

In addition to extending and enhancing classroom experiences, the library media center must strive to stimulate a lifelong love and appreciation of reading and learning. Knowledge of students' interests and abilities can help the media center acquire and promote a wide variety of materials that will encourage strong reading habits.

The media center serves all members of the school community, including those from a broad range of ethnic and cultural backgrounds and those with a variety of physical and mental needs. The staff must ensure that all patrons have adequate access to materials, instruction, services, and facilities that meet these diverse needs.

The library media center does not exist in a vacuum. It must both serve the community and draw from its resources. By working in partnership with public and university libraries and with other neighborhood individuals and associations, the media center can improve quality of life and access to information within the school and beyond its doors.

We live in United States of America and believe that informed and responsible citizens are essential to the continuation of our form of government. It is imperative that informed citizens have access to a wide variety of viewpoints and that they not be denied this access through censorship. Providing students with access to varied ideas and with skills for evaluating and ethically using them are essential components in developing new and effective citizens and future leaders.

(This philosophy was adapted from one developed collaboratively by Nancy Andrews, Mary Lewis, Oreta Taylor, and Karen Willingham for a PDEP assignment in EDIT 6300, Fall, 2005)

Media Center Vision and Goals

Before beginning this program, it seemed to me that effective libraries ran themselves. I knew, of course, that this was not the case, and entered my graduate program with the goals of discovering how exemplary media programs operate and of obtaining the knowledge and skills to implement such a program in my own school. I believe the University of Georgia School Library Media program has equipped me well through rigorous classes that stressed practical application of concepts within the framework of the fundamental philosophies presented in Information Power.

Based on these ideals, my goals are that the media center I serve:

• be student centered and service oriented
• implement policies that support the mission of the school and reflect the guiding philosophies of Information Power
• foster excitement for reading and learning
• equip patrons to locate, evaluate, and use information in an ethical manner
• maintain a balanced collection that supports the curriculum and encourages reading
• provide materials and lessons that support the learning styles and needs of all learners
• encourage collaboration with teachers
• provide experiences that help students understand and use a research process model within the context of the curriculum
• make program decisions based on research and analysis of data
• be well-organized and facilitate access for all patrons
• present a welcoming, comfortable, and stimulating environment
• provide access to multiple technologies that support learning and facilitate their use through instruction and modeling
• manage budgeted monies wisely and extend funds, when necessary, through grants and other sources
• employ successful marketing strategies that increase meaningful use of the media center by the school community
• ensure frequent continuing education opportunities for the media center staff