Partner in Learning:
The School Library Media Center

You may remember it simply as the school library, the place you visited between classes to read, do homework or conduct research for a term paper. But the school library of yesterday has given way to a new and exciting place — the school library media center, where information is available in a wide variety of formats, both print and electronic; where materials and activities are coordinated with classroom assignments; and where students learn information skills that prepare them to live and work in the 21st century.

Today's school library media program plays an integral role in educating children for the future. It is where students learn to find, analyze, evaluate, interpret, and communicate information and ideas — skills they will need as adults to live and work in an information-based society.

Besides serving as independent learning centers, many centers have programs that are directly integrated into the school curriculum. Some examples:

• The DeKalb County (Ga.) School System provides digital editing and multimedia equipment to all 118 of its library media centers and utilizes a “Curriculum Design Blueprint” that integrates resource-based teaching and information literacy skills into the curriculum.
• The library media center at Corbett Elementary School in Tucson, Ariz. is considered the hub of the school and also serves as a community meeting and learning center. The library media center is the meeting place for the Corbett Neighborhood Association and a parent support group. The school promotes its library's open door policy to the public and allows students and their families to use the library's computers and print materials.
• A group of 4th graders goes to the school library media center to learn about a proposed surface coal mining operation on top of Black Mountain, the only mountain in Kentucky tall enough to be a real mountain. They research the topic using books, the Internet and other library resources. But they don't stop there. With guidance from the school library media specialist, the students contact representatives of the coal companies, environmental groups and the Kentucky Coal Council. They present their findings to the state Legislature and attempt to convince the coal company to switch to deep mining.
• High school sophomores in a biology class use the library media center to do research on various diseases for oral and written reports. They can produce a PowerPoint presentation, a videotape, or a written report, since the library media center has the equipment and programs for the productions in all these formats.
• At New Trier Township High School in Winnetka, Ill., the school library media specialist not only collaborates with teachers to train all students to be lifelong learners, but also instructs all professional staff (including the district superintendent) with a variety of technology courses.
• Irving, Texas — culturally diverse and economically challenged — passed a school bond referendum that enabled the school district to provide new library media facilities and refurbish old ones and allowed major upgrades to technology infrastructure. As a result, the Irving Independent School District won the American Association of School Librarians National School Library Media Program of the Year award in the Large District category in 2000.
• The library media specialist at Cherry Drive Elementary School in Thornton, Colo. collaborates with teachers on curriculum so the library media center is an extension of the classroom. She teaches alongside the classroom teacher in the library and oversees student projects.
• High school students in Carmel, Ind., are among those thousands of students nationwide who can gain access to the catalog of their local public library through computers in their library media center.
• The Rhode Island Library Information Network (RILINK), which began as a catalog linking two school libraries, now is a self-supporting service including more than 300,000 items in 25 library media centers. Students can search RILINK themselves, from home or school.
• A middle school student prepares a report on the Chesapeake Bay Retriever, a breed of dog that she owns. In the library media center's electronic encyclopedia she finds a picture of the dog, which she downloads and inserts into the text of her written report, giving credit to the source.
• Despite its relatively small size (5,179 students in 5 schools), the Londonderry (N.H.) School District offers a fully developed library media program with library media specialists, support staff and solid, up-to-date collections. A strong district administrative direction encourages collaboration with teachers via a structured information literacy curriculum rubric.