HS

=HS Media Specialist=

This media specialist is the youngest of the interviewees (and the most talkative). He completed his MLS through IUPUI a few years ago. His technology skills are a great match for his position. The high school had an enrollment of 1,042 students last year, with a corporation enrollment of 3,486 students.

The media specialist gave me a tour of the center. He has one small storage room and shares another with the technology server for the corporation. The media center is part of a renovation that replaced a courtyard with classrooms and expansion of the media center. The center is located in the center of the ground level, not near any outside doors. The majority of the shelves are along the outside walls. The center is irregular in shape, including an open room with a skylight. This room currently houses the Dewey collection. At the beginning of each Dewey section a breakdown of the topics in that section is posted. His summer project has been weeding the Dewey sections. Thanks to this he has space for display within the Dewey shelves. The fiction is located at one end of the main room. It is labeled with single letters (A, B, C) at the top of each set of shelves to help students find materials. If a new section starts at or near the beginning of the shelving the letter is to the far left; if a new section starts ½ way through the shelves the letter is ½ way across top; and if a new section starts near the end, the letter is to the right.

At the other end of the main room, he has an Ellison press, two poster makers, and a laminator. The computers are along the one wall in this section and along the wall near the fiction.

This year he had to give up a reading room for a new ESL program position. This room used to be available as a quiet room for study or for students who need to make up videos missed from absences. It also had housed the Ellison press, poster makers, and laminator.

He wants better tables and chairs and a couple couches; he has four comfy chairs and two rocking Adirondack chairs which are the first six chairs to be filled anytime students come into the center.

The walls have student art; a small bulletin board for news articles about teams and the school; and posters about databases they have.

**Q. Tell me about collaboration** **with teachers**.
I wish I could do more. The English department is my main collaboration group. We've had some turnover in that department; most are younger than me. They do most projects on their own because they are younger; they don’t value what I offer. They haven’t been here long enough to understand my position.

For the drama/speech teacher, I made a pathfinder for her persuasive speeches unit. This included several mediums of information - websites, database links, print resources, link to our catalog, etc.

I maintain a schedule spreadsheet for the entire year; any in-house or out-of-house collaborations I put on this schedule. I include number of kids I worked with. This is also something I need to show to the administration concerning my position.

I am at the mercy of the class room teachers giving of their time. Our English department have week by week plans which are scripted; this makes it difficult for me to fit in to their schedules.

I do ILL for teachers as well.

I would love to have ten minutes of in-services to show something (no questions). I'd present and tell them to come see me or email about it.

**Q.** **Tell me about your OPAC, website, and other technology.**
I have 16 computers in the media center. We just set 14 of them up in groups of seven, using one tower as a server. This saved us about $2,000 [for each set of seven] compared to purchasing individual computers. Any service done will only be on one tower (a lot less maintenance cost) and when we upgrade we will be saving even more money with this setup. The initial cost is in the extra card and hubs.

Our OPAC is SageBrush's InfoCenter. It does everything we need it to do. (He demonstrated it and also showed me the student management program. He takes attendance for his "homeroom" and his student helpers.)

I use Dreamweaver to build the media center website. I am working on a new website. I've had this one for a few years and am ready to make some changes.

**Q.** **What reports do you turn in? Who do you seek approval from for new programs?**
We use the Reading Counts program. I do reports at the end of each trimester; they show it is working. The results are subtle, but improvements are happening.

No other reports are required, but I keep the collaboration spreadsheet.

**Q. Please tell me about your policies and procedures**.
At the beginning of the year, all Freshman English classes come in. I do a scavenger hunt with them, explain the ins and outs of the center, and give a tour.

Our loan period is twenty-one days. After that, students have a 21 day grace period. Beyond that, they are fined $1 total. Even if they turn it in a year late, they only owe $1. (While I was there, a student came in and asked if he could work off his fines by volunteering in the center. The media specialist was going to think about it. He had never had such a request before.)

I have a copy of our policies and procedures in my desk; I've never tweaked or revised them. (He checked the date- they were written in 1973.) They include a challenge sheet, collection development and other policies.

Our AUP is part of the technology plan. Students and teachers have to sign it every year.

**Q.** **Tell me about your collections.**
For my video collections, I weeded any older than 1990s unless they were high demand. I gave the weeded materials to teachers and asked for input for new videos. In many cases teachers said the videos were really outdated and suggested updated ones. We also started a subscription to Learn 360 through the ESC. They have the best price hands-down.

For book purchasing, Follett is my #1 choice. It has a new feature that allows you to break down your order by Dewey and interest level. I also use Permabound. I don't preview books anymore. When I first started, I allowed companies to send preview boxes, mainly to see how it worked.

The newest issues of magazines are displayed behind the circulation desk. Students may borrow them for use in the library, but only one at a time. I purchase quite a few magazines for teachers to use for curriculum / enrichment purposes. The ones that I purchase directly for teachers go straight to their mailbox. We record things on a master spreadsheet for tracking purposes. I keep back issues of magazines for one year. Every couple months or so we clean out our storage and place on a set of shelves in the library called "discard". I only store magazines with academic value. The entertainment magazines go directly to the discard shelf. Teachers are made aware of my discard pile throughout the year. Basically anything that's on the discard is free for the taking by anyone for whatever purpose.

**Q. Tell me about your schedule and how you use your time.**
I have a flexible schedule. I do have a homeroom, but it is the career student. They have to check in with me to get any paperwork, graduation information, or other important announcements.

Students will come down from study hall. We have an open pass for five students a day from one class. They stay for the entire period (70 minutes). We are also open during lunch (we have five lunches).

Students also come down as classes or individuals to take Reading Counts tests. If coming as individual, they have to stop by and get a red bookmark pass. This must be filled out and include the teacher's initials for the student to be allowed to test. The teacher's initials show the teacher knows the student is testing on that particular book. This helps maintain the integrity of the program.

**Q.** **Please share any advice you have for renovation.**
Decide the number of PCs you want -16 is not enough for class – I like it. But, my expertise and resources could be better utilized and more effectively used if I had a larger number of PCs. More PCs would increase number of bodies in room, give me more contact with students and teachers, but create more issues too. Think about how they would be used daily.

You don’t need a dedicated card catalog computer, map stands or dictionary stands. You don't need to pay for your signage (pointed out example from Media Council host site - all signage was produced on site). You can create your own unique signage that is personalized for your center.

You need at least two cozy reading areas, larger tables for collaborative groups, and study carrels or small areas where individuals can focus. Create a quiet space and a separate noisy space for the collaboration.

**Q. Tell me about your aides and student helpers.**
I have one aide - who is great. He processes and repairs books, handles checkout, and does other miscellaneous tasks such as publishing and hanging book reviews in the hall. Just this past week I heard some teachers complaining about me having an aide. They don’t understand why I need an assistant.

Students who are interested in helping are given a document describing their duties. I have them read over the document and ask them if they think they can do all the tasks. Some students I schmooze more than others. If I really want them I will tout other perks such as unlimited hot chocolate and snacks.

**Q. Tell me about your budget.**
For my budget, I keep a spreadsheet complete with formulas. I share it with the other media specialists in the corporation. (He gave me an electric copy of this year's spreadsheet).

In addition to Inspire, we subscribe to CQ Researcher ($805 this year), and Gale's PowerSearch. For Gale, I cover most of the subscription cost ($5,000 per year) but the English, social studies, and ESL departments kick in some funds as well.

We used to have Grolier Online, but I dropped it because I wanted to keep Gale’s PowerSearch.

Recently I paid for WebDewey ($300+) to help me with weeding and assigning the correct Deweys. It was well worth the cost.

**Q.What programs and promotions do you do?**
I do not do any book fairs or fundraisers.

I put ads in the hallway for various books including the Rosies (which say "Recommended by __").

I really focus on the Rosies; I have a display near the cafeteria, a hallway display (right outside the media center) with color copies of book jackets, and I have color miniature covers taped to the circulation desk along with information about the Elliot Rosewater Award.

I also do booktalks on the Rosies using the free Audacity program. This year I read AIME’s synopsis. These are available on my website. I also add the URL to our catalog so students searching the catalog can listen to these booktalks as well.

During the summer I meet with new staff members for about an hour. I give them an overview of our school and try to promote our program. The challenge is getting teachers to understand the importance of information literacy. I give them all a handout. If we have a new foreign language teacher, math teacher, and art teacher, I include a page that highlights resources we have for each subject area. I also tell them that if they have any suggested resources to let me know.

Another way I promote our program is through the website. I created this from scratch (using Dreamweaver). I am working on a new one which includes a Google search that only searches my site/domain.

**Q.** **What professional organizations you would recommend to me**?

 * AIME**...go to the ILF conference every year. I thought about going to the ALA conference this year, but I still have summer school hours. I am not sure how much longer that will last, so I decided not to push the issue by going to the conference.

**Q.** **Tell me about audio and ebook downloads.**
I purchased ebooks on Follett’s site. Students can “check out for 3 days". After that three days the book is no longer accessible. They can "renew" the book for another three days (and keep doing this until they are done reading it).

I have administrative support for iPods in the school since the audiobooks are in that format. There's been a bit of grumbling, but if a student will listen to the story when he/she may not have read the book before, it is needed.

For audiobooks I have an iTunes account. Look for iTunes U; these are open access/copyright free -some of them are college lectures that have been recorded(look at South Florida). I am working on a document for students to sign that they will remove audiobooks after x days from their MP3 player.

**Q. What advice do you have for me?**
A previous administrator did not observe me and seemed to be questioning my position when he approached me. I worked almost 2 days to validate my position using the teaching standards for media. I went through each standard and listed all I did in the past year to meet the standards. After turning this in I ended up getting the best evaluation I had ever had. It is important for you to document -monthly, by grading period... however the information looks best for you. Be sure to include number of students involved.
 * Document!** Keep track of collaboration, the number of students seen through this, etc.

At faculty meetings, share tech. information (don't open it up to questions. Ask them to email or come see you if they want more information or have questions).

Go to AASL website for the Bill of Rights and look at their toolkits.

For graphic novels, see Robyn Young at Avon High School. She has an extensive collection and knowledge.

Use NetLibrary; I have many college books in my favorites including //More is Less// (weeding book).

Do a collection analysis with Titlewise or Baker & Taylor. I do this two times a year. I wait until the large fall order is processed to do the first one, and then do the second one near the end of the year.

Check out Adobe Capture. I use it to create tutorials/screencasts (such as for the Test and Education Center through Inspire).

I don't know if you are aware, but the Indiana DOE website now has correlations from the curricular standards to information literacy standards.

My top three (he showed me examples of each) - //School Library Journal -// gotta have; //Teacher Librarian -// This borders academic/high level Bloom (read, absorb, ponder); //Library Media Connection// //School Librarian’s Workshop// (fall, spring, summer) -This is like a pathfinder for librarians. I have dropped pages in a teacher's mailbox with a sticky note to see me. For you, //School Library Monthly// might be good since it is more K-12.