The School District of New Lisbon is served by one Instructional Media Center serves 702 students in grades EC-12. This includes the Special Education department and four year old kindergarten programs. This facility is centrally located to provide easy access for all students and served by one library media specialist and one librarian support staff person.
The School District of New Lisbon has an EC-12 library media program that is an integral and supportive part of the curriculum, but also provides a mechanism for choice and exploration beyond the prescribed courses of study. The IMC (Instructional Media Center) provides a wide range of resources in print, nonprint, and electronic format. The media center personnel strive to incorporate technology into teaching information literacy library skills and the integration of curricular studies applied to these library skills.
The media program provides opportunities to develop student skills of locating, analyzing, evaluating, interpreting, and communicating information and ideas in this fast-paced, information-saturated world. Students are encouraged to think critically and solve problems, to observe rights and responsibilities relating to the generation and flow of information and ideas, and to appreciate the value of literature in this global society. The Big6™ Research process is used consistently within the media center to guide the students through the process of information seeking.
In today’s schools, students are presented with an ever-increasing amount of information from print, non-print, and electronic resources. Information literacy provides students with the skills needed to evaluate and locate information. Information technologies typically are the electronic tools used to gather, process, and communicate information. Students need to learn how to evaluate sources, find accurate information, access quality web sites, and be able to process this
information for academic purposes.
In order for our media program to be successful, we base our beliefs on the principles outlined by the Information Power Vision Committee, reviewed and commented upon by the profession, and approved by the AASL and AECT Boards as the cardinal premises on which learning and
teaching within the effective school library media program is based:
• The library media program is essential to learning and teaching and must be fully integrated into the curriculum to promote students’ achievement of learning goals
• The information literacy standards for student learning are integral to the content and objectives of the school’s curriculum
• The library media program models and promotes collaborative planning and curriculum development
• The library media program models and promotes creative, effective, and collaborative teaching
• Access to the full range of information resources and services through the library media program is fundamental to learning
• The library media program encourages and engages students in reading, viewing, and listening for understanding and enjoyment
• The library media program supports the learning of all students and other members of the learning community who have diverse learning abilities, styles, and needs.
• The library media program fosters individual and collaborative inquiry
• The library media program integrates the uses of technology for learning and teaching
• The library media program is an essential link to the larger learning community
The EC-12 media center is a new building addition in 2000 that is a carpeted area divided into two sections to separate the collection into grades EC-5 materials and grades 6-12 materials appropriate for curriculum. The west wall of the media center is comprised entirely of twenty-foot floor-to-ceiling windows giving the media center a solarium atmosphere.
Collection: The media center collection is arranged by the Dewey Decimal System which serves approximately 800 patrons consisting of 702 students, 70 staff, and several parents. The collection consists of 19,700 items in print, audiovisual, audiocassette, technology equipment, professional and periodicals valued at approximately $285,700. An extensive collection analysis was completed in October 2004 to evaluate the overall age of the collection broken down into Dewey Decimal subcategories. The media specialist has spent a significant amount of time updating the collection and weeding dated materials. The collection has undergone drastic weeding over the past five years with the elimination of unused, outdated items. The collection analysis indicated the average age of the collection being approximately 30 years old. Previous staff had not bar-coded video titles or professional collection and much time was spent updating that segment. Weeding is implemented after careful consideration of district policies for weeding and collection development. The library staff was also cognizant of environmentally friendly disposal of books and enlisted the help of our local Wisconsin Army National Guard. Discarded materials were flown to Nicaragua at no charge to the District.
Nonfiction: Non-fiction sections are standing four-foot high floor units with grades 6-12 materials with yellow clear spine labels and grades EC-5 non-fiction with clear blue. This visual identification system was put into place to eliminate the confusion of materials getting put away in the wrong location. Call numbers include an addition “el” identification behind elementary titles, but color coding has virtually eliminated mixing up the collection. Currently, purchasing is focused on the building of newer, more accurate non-fiction high school titles. Most materials were extremely dated and falling apart from lack of use. Common School Funding has been a valuable resource and addition to the media center budget.
Fiction: Fiction sections are wall-units on north and south ends of the building dividing fiction titles into grade level selections. Again, the fiction titles are color-coded with gray clear labels for grades 6-12 titles and purple clear labels for EC-5. Picture books are also identified with large alphabet stickers to help young children to locate and shelve books more easily. The media specialist carefully reviews current book reviews and researches titles for curricular use before purchasing for the collection.
Periodicals: Two (2) large wall units contain approximately fifty (50) periodicals subscribed to for students and staff. This includes elementary selections such as Ranger Rick, Zoobooks, and Sports Illustrated for Kids. The District subscribes to two (2) state newspapers: LaCrosse Tribune, Wisconsin State Journal; and two (2) local newspapers: The Messenger, The Star Times.
Audiobooks: A concerted effort has gone into developing a much-needed audiobook collection for students struggling with reading. A number of audiocassettes have been donated by staff along with the purchasing of books on CD and audiocassette. This has been a popular new addition to the collection.
Videos: Approximately 800 video titles are included for staff use. Currently checkout is limited to staff for curricular use and collection is kept separate from student titles. New titles have been added slowly as the titles are very dated, most from the 1980s.
Special Collections: A separate collection of New Lisbon memorabilia is archived for preservation including annuals dating back to 1917, memorabilia from past alumni, and copies of the historical New Lisbon Book written by our library media specialist for the community’s Sesquicentennial Celebration this past fall.
Circulation: The circulation desk is centrally located between the two divided collections. Alexandria software is currently used. Circulation statistics vary monthly and average 6,230 total checkouts yearly.
Design: Shelving is arranged in vertical rows for easy visual checks of student activity on north and south ends. Six (6) tables for older students are included on the north end and six (6) shorter tables are available for younger students in the library for study. One (1) Library Collection search station is available on each side for collection access. The north corner includes an elevated theatre area for story time with younger students. The north end also includes a six-foot white board for library skill instruction, as well as a portable whiteboard center for teaching opportunities around the library.
A network communications closet in the media center contains the district in-house cable network equipment to broadcast video and DVD programs into select classrooms. This system includes four VCR players, 1 DVD player, 1 TV monitor, and a five CD player system.
A conference room connects to the media center for easy access, as well as a store room for IMC materials, office space, network closet, and two (2) computer alcoves. Each alcove is designed for up to ten (10) computers to be installed for student and staff use.
Available Equipment: The media center is the epicenter for technology resources. Staff have access to three (3) Sony digital still cameras, two (2) Sony digital video cameras, two (2) RCA analog video cameras, zip drives, tape recorders, slide projectors, floppy drives, two (2) projection units, overheads, TV iView for converting computer images to classroom televisions, a 24-inch poster maker, twenty-four (24) Alphasmarts, CD/DVD burners, two (2) HP scanners, and a mobile wireless computer mini-lab consisting of ten (10) iBook computers.
Software: Software programs are available to students and staff for projects including but not limited to MicrosoftOffice, iMovie, iPhoto, FirstClass Client, Graphics Converter, Kidspiration, and Inspiration software for curricular needs. Each classroom computer has access to the Library Collection online catalog. Computers are connected with a fiber backbone running at 1000baseT with the majority of desktop connections at 100baseT.
Staff: The current library media specialist has been managing the media center since 2000. Previously held positions include teaching various grades in the elementary and junior high schools, as well as acting as the district’s reading specialist for three years. This classroom experience was invaluable for building relationships with students and knowing best teaching practices for successful literacy programs. The library support staff person has worked with the elementary library program since 1997.
Library Program: The library media specialist is responsible for the implementation and administration of the EC-6 library skill program. This curriculum heavily emphasizes information literacy skills based upon the Wisconsin Model Academic Standards for Information & Technology Literacy (ITLS), as well as the Wisconsin State Academic Content Standards. A well-researched curriculum plan was created to align standards with library skills at each grade level involved with classes.
Students in four-year-old kindergarten, special education, and all elementary classes meet every other week with library staff to develop library and information literacy skills. Every effort is made to incorporate classroom content and apply to information literacy awareness. Students in grades 6-12 have the opportunity to apply information literacy skills as classrooms visit the media center for academic projects. The library media specialist reviews the assignment in advance and develops research guides to enhance and strengthen information literacy skills of students. This may also include the library media specialist developing web pages that coincide with an instructor’s topic.
Other services include the distribution of a monthly newsletter to elementary students titled Building Readers, a monthly newsletter for staff titled IMC Madness, and a subscription to Building Readers web links located on the homepage of this site. Additionally, the Accelerated Reader program is managed by IMC staff.
