The Final

I'm so excited to say that this is our last assignment during the 6 week "change up" on my blog.  From now on, it will be fun personal posts and not so formal.

For this post we read an article by Marjorie Pappas titled "Virtual School Library Media Center Management Manual."  We had to correct the dead or outdated links with more meaningful ones for me.

The following is an excerpt from that article.

School library media specialists often post messages on LM_NET and other state listservs I monitor, requesting examples of information that I used to maintain in a management manual when I was a school library media specialist. I started my manual when I was a student in the organization and administration course we all take in library science programs and I kept it current with information gleaned from conferences, workshops, and networking with other school library media specialists. Manuals are easier to maintain today because of networking through listservs and the Internet. In thinking about the requests for information related to policies, job descriptions, cataloging, resource acquisition, etc., I decided a virtual version of this traditional paper manual might be an interesting and useful concept.

Setting Up My Virtual Manual

My concept of virtual is paperless. Virtual manuals can be maintained without the challenge of adding pages and adjusting page numbers. Virtual manuals can include hyperlinks to information located on the Web. Before starting the development of my manual, I thought about who might access the manual besides the school library media specialist. Library assistants, volunteers, and, occasionally, substitutes should all be able to access this manual. Also, the library media specialist should be able to access the manual when working at home. The best way to achieve that flexibility is to post the manual on the library media center's website or on the school's network, assuming the network is Internet accessible. If a library media center website or network is not available, the concept is still feasible, but a little more challenging, because new versions would need to be loaded on separate computers. Once this decision has been made, the next step is to scan and/or key-in the existing information related to the specific library media center. Following are sections and weblinks to include.

Policies

Some policies need to be written to fit the unique needs of a specific library media center, for example, circulation policies that establish the time periods books circulate and the cost for replacing lost books. Other policies, like copyright, are based on federal legislation. Links to Web-based copyright information will be useful to supplement local policies.

Policy weblinks:

• Complete Copyright. ALA. A collection of documents related to copyright issues and libraries on the American Library Association website.
• Computer Network/Internet Use Agreement. PDF. Goodman-Armstrong Creek School District: Goodman WI
• Copyright Basics and the internet Reidsville Middle School: Reidsville NC
• Lost/Overdue Materials Guidelines The School Board of Broward County, Florida. School Libraries Policies and Procedures.PDF.
• Mesa County Valley School District 51; Grand Junction, Colorado. A comprehensive collection of policies for school library media centers.
  

Personnel

The school library media specialist's job description should be posted, but it also would be useful to link to job descriptions for student and parent volunteers. The Web provides examples of job descriptions for this section.

Examples of job descriptions:

• Certified School Librarians:Duties and Responsibilities Clayton County Public Schools, Georgia 2012.
• Job Descriptionan: Library Assistant Spring Branch Independent School District: Houston TX
• Job Description: Media Specialist . Howard Country Public School
• Library and Media Staff Job Description ALA Overview of Library Support Staff.
• Librarian/Assistant Interview Pointers Mr. Library Dude. “Nailing the Library Interview.”
  

Collection Development and Acquisitions

The purchase of resources and technology for the library requires access to information about producers and jobbers.

Useful websites:

• Acquisitions, Collection Maintenance and Electronic Access . North American Serials Interest Group. Example of position statement
• The New AcqWeb Publisher and vendor information.
• The Librarian's Yellow Pages. Publisher, periodical, jobber, and vendor links.
• School Library Collection Development ALA Collection Development wiki.
  

Forms

Examples can help school library media specialists develop the forms for use in the library media center. This is a section that can be developed over time.

Examples of forms:

• Audio Visual Review Committee Report Georgetown University Internal Library Review Report
• Collaborative Planning. Library Learning Walk Standard 2.5 with template.
• Elementary Library Services Monadnock Regional School District: Swanzey NH
• Full-length Feature Films to be Used for Classroom Instruction. Truman State University Frequently Asked Questions and Answers.
• Faculty Recommendation for Library Materials. Form. Baltimore County Public Schools, Maryland.
• Library Monthly Update. PDF. Kevin Finkle. Baltimore County Public Schools, Maryland. Form to gather information from teachers about future units and lessons.
• Teacher/Librarian Collaborative Unit: Planning. PDF. School District of Philadelphia, 1999.
• Disaster Preparedness – Bridge Multimedia: New York City (2011). Government guidelines for schools.
  

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District Portal as Manuals

School library media services in larger school districts have developed excellent portal pages. These portals provide school library media specialists with both instructional and management resources and tools.

Examples of portals:

• PBWorks John Peter. Site for Educators.
• Missouri School Library Facilities Handbook. PDF. Missouri Standards for School Library Media Centers (July 2008).
  

These virtual manuals and portals enable parents, community members, and other school library professionals to view how school library media specialists manage media centers and teach students to gather and use information. Now all we need is a portal page to the portals.