[LM_NET] TAR: Services & procedures in the Urban Media Center

[Rachel Osborne <rachel.e.osborne@GMAIL.COM>]

I'm looking for suggestions from those of you who are currently working in
or have experience with urban media centers. I'm finishing up my licensure
this month, and a number of questions have arisen from my teaching and
student teaching experiences at the elementary level.

I find that urban media centers--particularly those with high
transience/poverty levels--are faced with unique challenges that are rarely
addressed in classes or at conferences. Though I've found a wealth of
material for classroom teachers and administrators in urban education, I
have yet to find anything substantive for media specialists. I'm compiling
information about the unique challenges and possible solutions faced by the
urban media center, which I'd be happy to share.

A couple of examples:

Funding--I know that most of us face this problem, but I find that certain
suggestions for fundraising--book fairs, petitioning the PTA--just don't
work in a school where no one has the money to buy books or the time
to attend PTA meetings. How have you creatively raised funds for your urban
media center?

Lost book policies--This one's tricky, and often situational, but I'm
curious about policies that have been successful. When kids have to move in
the middle of the night, I'm inclined to forgive a lost book, but my concern
is more with students who have messy home lives and who lose books more
frequently. Many of these students are unable to pay back the full price of
a book. I don't like the idea of refusing to let them check books out until
the book has been returned or paid for--for a number of students, this
would mean that they wouldn't be able to get a book for years--but I think
there should be some level of accountability. My supervising media
specialist finds that it doesn't work to have students "earn" the money by
working in the library because they prefer to be helping in the media
center rather than sitting in class. What works for you?

Large ELL populations--Many media specialists have these needs to serve, but
it seems that the urban media center often has much higher ELL populations.
 How are you supporting your ELL learners?

Please share any possible solutions, as well as additional challenges that
you feel are unique to the urban media center. Thank you so much for your
help!


Rachel Osborne
SLMS/MLIS College of St. Catherine
St. Paul, MN
rachel.e.osborne@gmail.com

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