Hello Everyone:
I am experiencing a "project overload." :-) I am starting the year at a
high school media
center, which is a new position for me, having left a middle school media
specialist position with a different school system.
When I say there is much to do at this school's library, there is MUCH MUCH
to do!!
I don't know where to place my energies first, it is so mind boggling:
1) This high school library has been MANUALLY checking out books for the
last four years
because the previous media specialist(s) have not been able to get the
automation system working for one reason or another. Resources that are on
the shelf are fully processed with spine labels,
pockets, etc. When students have wanted to check out a book, they would
bring the book to the front desk and leave the card that was in the pocket
with the media specialist.
2) There is no meaningful inventory available
When I say no inventory I mean no meaningful inventory of books, videos,
equipment, software, magazines that would tell me the the age of the
collection, what's missing or lost, what sections need to be "shored up" and
what sections they have enough material in. There is one massive notebook
with print outs of things the library owns, but I don't know how accurate or
current it is and it probably does not list the copyright dates.
3)Students have no way of looking up resources in the media center, manually
or otherwise. I think the media clerk said students come to her to ask where
certain sections are. There is not
even a poster of the dewey decimal system for students to use. (When the
media center was beginning the roll out of this now non-existent automation
system they assumed everything would be working okay, so the entire card
catalog was discarded, so the
students nor myself even have that to fall back on.
4) And perhaps worst of all, the way the sections are organized are trully
questionable:
There is a separate section for Black biographies and a separate section for
white biographies
A person could not come in immediately and know which sections are which, as
there is minimal
labelling and signage.
5) Items are not shelved accurately accordingly to dewey decimal system.
This library program is trully a case of the worst media practices, and
obviously has very
low standards and expectations set for its users to be self sufficient media
center users.
As you can imagine I have my hands full!! I am prepared to push on with
this school year with or without automation. Where would some of you begin
tackling these issues???
P.S. Contacting the previous media specialist is not an option, because she
has not returned
my phone calls to date. We do however, have the help of the media clerk who
is returning.
Jerol King
Media Specialist
Washington High School
Atlanta, GA
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