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Strategic Management Plan 4:

School Library Media Center Facilities:

Inside the Walls & Beyond

Hannah Steele and L. Wimberly Tyler

Department of Leadership, Technology, and Human Development, Georgia Southern University

FRIT 7331: Leadership of the School Library Media Program

Dr. Valerie Bryan

October 18, 2020

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Physical Facility

The media center at Warner Robins Middle School has been adapted to include multiple

types of work spaces as well as a wide variety of books and resources. When you enter the media

center, you are immediately greeted with the circulation desk, which is structured in an L shaped

format so that it can face both the entrance doors and the main space of the library. The library is

divided in half with bookshelves on the far side and work spaces on the side closest to the doors

and the circulation desk. The Smartboard is on the front wall, surrounded by bookshelves that

showcase the latest and greatest editions to the library. Black cushion seats form a U shape so

that students can sit comfortably and face the Smartboard for library lessons and reading. Bucket

chairs are placed sporadically in the center of the U for alternative seating. Behind the black sofa

type seating are three long tables, forming a wide-open U shape with large cushioned bench

seats. In between the sofa seating and the bookshelves are tall café tables and chairs. Towards the

back of the library, roughly six standard tables and chairs fill in the rest of the workspace. The

back wall features a counter with computers and headphones spaced across it. All monitors are

visible to the room so that the media specialist can see what students are doing on the computers.

The bookshelves are labeled clearly by genre in bright, school color themed labels. In

each genre section, books are organized alphabetically. The nonfiction books are featured on

shelves that wrap around half of the back and front walls and the right-side wall. These are

organized by the Dewey Decimal System with guidance posters placed in the corners of the

room. The center of the circulation desk features the media specialist’s computer and phone. The

scanner where students come for checkout is also in this space, with a keypad for students to type

in their lunch number to access their account. There is also a self-checkout system where

students can use the scanner and touch screen monitor to check out or renew books themselves.
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There is a book drop slot there as well. Book drop bins are scattered throughout the school. The

media specialist is in the process of installing a self-check-in station on the side of the counter

facing the doors that has a touchless scanner. Support columns in the center of the room provide

a landing space for smaller bookshelves which hold classic literature and Spanish and Bilingual

novels. There is a bookshelf in the back left corner that is dedicated to books for the mild and

moderately disabled students. These are picture books and early reader books. The media

specialist collaborates with the special education teachers to keep that circulation relevant and

exciting. The counter of the circulation desk is raised so that the media specialist’s workspace is

more hidden from view. Resources for students like bookmarks and shelf markers are kept on the

upper counter in reach.

There are displays of book related “memes,” jokes, and encouraging statements. One

display features the book that the media specialist is currently reading. There are several rooms

within the library, one being the media specialist’s office. Her office is behind the circulation

desk and the front is all glass to make the main space visible at all times. There is also a work

room on that side of the media center that holds cutters, laminators, and more. On the other side

of the room, there is a locked storage room that holds class sets of books, book club books,

textbooks, and professional development books for teachers. Laptop carts were recently

distributed across the school and housed in each grade level’s science lab, so only two extra

device carts are stored in the media center.

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Photographs and Floor Plan

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Virtual Facility

The media specialist at my school has created two separate media center websites. The

platform used by the county to create our school websites is not user friendly and significantly

limits formatting and customization, so she created a separate on Google Sites that could be more

customizable.

On the site affiliated with the ​school website​, students have access to GALILEO Links,

citation help, Scholastic ordering, and our online Destiny Discover catalog. There is also a link to

summer reading options, an infographic about last year’s library statistics, a short paragraph with

media center information, a list of media center rules, an informational video about the media

center, a video created showcasing school staff promoting reading, and the “super secret code”

for GALILEO.

A link to the ​additional Google Site​ is highlighted on the school page. This site is much

more detailed and features more information about our media specialist. The home page
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showcases the summer reading options and a link for parents to use for at home learning

resources. The website has multiple tabs in the navigation bar featuring teacher resources, e-book

options, research help for students, book video trailers, and a list of award-winning books. The

teacher resources page features tutorial videos and guides for how to work some of the main

software and websites we use. The research help tab features the link to GALILEO and help with

citations. The book trailers are divided into ones created by the media specialist and ones created

by WRMS students. For e-book options, the website has instructions and log in information for

how to access ​Destiny Discover​, the Junior Library Guild, Audible, ​Sora​, and ​MackinVIA​.

Both websites are completely viewable to the public, but many of the links and resources

listed on the site require the students to sign in using their information on the Single Sign-On

Portal. Resources that have separate access information have that access information listed on the

website. All of these resources can be accessed at home or at school on a multitude of devices.

The library does have e-books available, but no e-readers. All eBooks are available through

e-book reader applications, ebook apps, or e-books in the cloud.

The library websites are managed by the media specialist and are updated as needed. She

checks them once a month to make sure everything is working and up to date. She adds resources

to the teacher help page as people ask for specific resources. She is unsure if there is a way to

track how many students are using the website, and she knows that teachers use the website if

they mention something to her about it.

The links to the media center websites are as follows:

Link to Media Center Site 1 - ​https://wrms.hcbe.net/mediacenter

Link to Media Center Site 2 - ​https://sites.google.com/hcbe.net/wrmsmediacenter/home

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Analysis

The learning commons of WRMS is an attractive, welcoming, safe, and inviting learning

environment for all that are a part of the learning community. ​I believe the best thing about our

media center is the variety of seating types, as well as the way the books are organized.

According to ​Empowering Learners: Guidelines for School Library Programs,​ “the physical

space serves as an intellectual gymnasium with multiple, flexible spaces that accommodate a

variety of learning tasks” (American Association of School Librarians [AASL], 2013, p. 45). In

the WRMS media center, the students are always excited to try out the sofa seating, the bench

seats, the bucket seats, and the café tables. It is also great that the regular tables are available to

serve as a standard working place. These tables make group work and station type activities

much easier to facilitate. The organization of the fiction books helps the students find books they

prefer to read. The labels are also very clear and bright which is also helpful for students. Each

shelf of nonfiction books has a label for what range of Dewey numbers it covers and what those

numbers mean. The vibrant colors, multiple uses of flexible seating, and easy read labels make

the facility attractive to members of the learning community.

In the overall analysis of the learning commons, there are some areas that could be

improved upon. For example, there is a lack of books displays and interactive displays to grab

students’ attention. If these displays are designed to catch the eye of young learners, the design

will help to focus their attention on the books that are displayed and hopefully spark their interest

and curiosity into further exploring the books and other resources that are offered in the media

center. The next area that is in need of approval is technology. Although there is access to

technology in the learning commons, there is not enough to accommodate an entire class if that

opportunity was to arise. There is a need for more computer access in the learning commons
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since we are not a 1:1 school. Lastly, there is no designated makerspace area in the learning

commons of WRMS. The makerspace is a valuable, interactive, and innovative component to a

21st century learning commons. The makerspace allows for students to express their creativity

and curiosity through hands-on activities. By designating a maker-space area, students have the

opportunity to see past the traditional thoughts of only associating a library with reading. This

creative space allows for students to interact with technology, be creative with their learning, and

collaborate with other learners as well.

Empowering Learners i​ ndicates that “the school librarian advocates for access to a broad

range of ideas and information for all members of the learning community” (AASL, 2013, p. 52),

which clearly includes students with special needs. The media center at Warner Robins Middle

School does address the special needs of the student population in some areas, but there is room

for improvement. The bookshelf dedicated to books specifically for students with developmental

disabilities helps to provide equitable access to resources for all students in the school

population. There are also resources available to the special education teachers that are kept in

the storage room that include audiobooks and computer programs that address the special

learning needs of the students. The media specialist collaborates often with the special education

teachers to make sure that they have the resources they would like to use with their students. The

media specialist also has a background in teaching special education, so she is able to better

provide equitable services for students with special needs than media specialists with no special

education background. In order to improve the media center’s support for equitable access to

resources, the media center could be adjusted to better serve students with physical disabilities or

mobility issues. The resources on the circulation desks are unreachable for a student in a

wheelchair, and some of the bookshelves are too close together for mobility assistance tools.
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Additionally, the amount of resources available for students with special learning needs could be

increased tremendously. The media center does not seem to have resources specifically for

students with hearing or vision impairments.

The environment of the learning commons is conducive to learning. However, the space

does not have any designated rooms or locations that are designated as a “quiet space.” The

media center is set up to accommodate whole groups of students and easy access to seating for

collaboration, but there is not an area designated to be a quiet space. A designated quiet space,

along with the other various aspects of the current learning commons leaves ample room for

improvement to create an even more positive learning environment for 21st century learners.
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References

American Association of School Librarians. (2013). Empowering learners guidelines for school

library programs. Chicago, Ill.: American Association of School Librarians.

Follett. (2019). ​Destiny discover.

https://www.follettlearning.com/books-materials/learn/digital-content/follett-ebooks/eboo

k-management/destiny-discover/

MackinVIA. (n.d.) ​Sign in.​ ​https://mackinvia.com

Pfeuffer, S. (2020, June 3). ​Ms. p’s picks.​ WRMS media center info.

https://sites.google.com/hcbe.net/wrmsmediacenter/home?authuser=0

Sora. (n.d.) ​Open a world of reading​. ​https://soraapp.com/welcome

Warner Robins Middle School [WRMS]. (2020). ​Media Center.​

https://wrms.hcbe.net/mediacenter

Google Doc Link:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Uw_MfI-ROmqMXpwUyODDdshxayD6RBkgmL

QfbO0Njck/edit?usp=sharing