Section IV: School Library Media Center Facilities

Analysis of the Overall Learning Climate

The media center at Bulloch Academy is in an older building that was once the

gymnasium for the school. The media center is somewhat outdated with regards to furnishing

and dcor, but inviting to the students. The media center is a wide open room with only book

shelves defining the different areas of the media center. The walls are painted a butter yellow

and are in need of updating. The new media specialist has added quotes pertaining to education

and reading around the room to try and add a little something to brighten up the room. The

media center is staffed by a full time media specialist and a part time media clerk. This is the

media specialist 2nd year in her role. The media clerk has been in her position for 10 years. With

the hiring of the new media specialist, there seems to be a lighter mood with students when they

enter the media center. The media center also has high school aids who work during the day at

different times. These students help with running errands, working the circulation desk, shelving

books, and some even read during story time to the younger students.

Sections of the Media Center and its Furnishings

The media center at Bulloch Academy is dated but welcoming to students. It is located

between the middle and high school halls of the upper school building. There are two doors that

allow access to the media center, one from each hall. There are 8 round wooden tables with

enough seating for 32 students. These tables form a U shape where teachers can hold class if

needed. If class needs to be held in the media center teachers and students have access to a

SmartBoard and LCD projector with a dedicated computer to use for instructional purposes. The

tables are large and round with 4 solid wooden chairs at each table. For a long time period the
chairs can become uncomfortable. Students have access to 20 desktop computers which are

found around the outer walls of the media center. The same wooden chairs that are found at the

round tables are also the ones at each computer station. In the area designated for story time

there is an older wooden bench with a padded seat. This is the only seating of its type in the

media center. In the media center there are 4 metal carts that we use for various displays. One

of those carts is the new book cart. We use this cart to display new books that we have in the

media center.

Each section of the media center is defined with shelving. The media center is broken

down into sections: fiction chapter books, biographies, non-fiction, teacher resources, references

and easy readers (pictures books). The easy readers are broken down by Accelerated Reader

levels and then alphabetized. This section in located near the area where story time is held 2

days a week. The back wall of the media center is designated just for chapter book series. The

biographies and reference books are situated on a tall shelf on the wall adjacent to the book

series shelf. We have three double sided shelves of fiction books. These are located behind the

tables and towards the back of the media center. All of the bookshelves are metal with wooden

endcaps. The shelves in the easy reader and non-fiction sections are 4 feet high. The chapter

books, biographies, series books, references and teacher resource bookshelves are 6 feet high.

The bottom shelves are used for storage of class sets of books. This was system was started by

our previous media specialist and seems to work well.

The circulation desk is at the front of the media center between the two entrance doors. It

has one computer for checking out books. When students are returning books to the media

center they are to place them on the counter near the computer as they come in. Also, found at

the circulation desk are the printers that are used by teachers as well as students. All of the
computers in the media center as well as the two laptop carts are wirelessly linked to those two

computers. The color printer accessibility is only available to teachers and media center staff.

Behind the circulation desk are two offices. The new lamination machine is kept behind the

circulation desk. The media clerk, media specialist and aids are the only ones who are allowed

to use the laminator. The laminate on Tuesdays and Thursdays. There are two desk on each wall

behind the circulation desk. One of those desk belongs to the media clerk and the other desk is

used as a lookup station by our coaches and manintence man. There are also two offices located

behind the circulation desk. The two offices belong to the media specialist and the middle

school athletic director. These offices have large open windows that can see into the media

center. Each office has a desk, computer, dedicated phone line and the back wall lined with book

shelves.

To the right and left of the circulation desk you will find two rooms. The room to the

right houses the schools computer servers, DVD and VHS collections, and a storage area. The

back wall has wooden shelves that hold the DVD/VHS collections. The servers are on the left

side of the room along with the security camera recording equipment. The storage area is on the

back wall of the room. The room to the left of the circulation desk is the teacher workroom.

This teacher work room is used by the middle and high school teachers. It houses the two

copies, Scantron machine and paper cutter. There is a large rectangular table for teachers to

work or eat their lunch. The Scantron machine and paper cutter sit atop a long cabinet. This

cabinet is used to store blank Scantron forms and extra copy machine toner.
Temperature/Lighting/Sounds/Traffic

The media center is in the center of the building which was once the gymnasium. The gym was

converted to make the upper school and media center. We have a floating ceiling above us,

which acts like a greenhouse of hot days. On those days the media centers central heat and air

work hard to keep it at 73 degrees. During the cooler months it is often cooler in the media center

and the heather has to work a little harder to keep up with the temperature that is set.

The lighting in the media center can be harsh at times. The only lighting is the florescent

lights from the ceiling. There are large windows on each side of the media center that look out

into the middle and high school halls, but those let little natural light into the building.

Sound is not a big problem in the media center. The media center floor is covered in a

kaleidoscope of colors. The carpet squares were donated by a local company and put down in a

random way. The floor can be somewhat distracting because of the random colors and patterns

of the carpet squares.

Most of our media center traffic comes for the students in the lower school. The high

volume lower school traffic comes between the hours of 8-9 and 2-3 every day. Monday

mornings are very busy with students returning books from the weekend and Friday afternoons

when they come to check out their books for the weekend. The media center is also used for

class instruction and whole class computer use frequently. If teachers need to use the media

center they sign up in a calendar that is located at the circulation desk. When a whole class

comes into the media center the nose level can get louder than usual, but the teachers are good at

reminding students to keep their voices low when working in groups.

Accessibility

The Bulloch Academy media center is wheelchair accessible. Students may need

assistance entering the media center because both door open outward out into the hallway and

not inward into the media center. The room is large and open, this should not be a problem for

wheelchairs to move about the media center. In the fiction book section of the media center the

rows are narrower than in the other sections. They will only allow for a wheelchair to go up and

down them without anyone else being in the row. Special needs students may need help getting

books located on the higher shelves down. There are a good many foreign exchange students

enrolled at Bulloch Academy. The majority of the students speak and understand English.

Those that have problems use their translators. For those students who ask for help, I show and

tell them how do what they are asking about instead of just telling them.

Fiction chapter book rows behind the Two rows of picture books. The non-
round tables for class instruction fiction books are on the row to the right
and on the shelves that are on the right
side of the row.
Laptop cart charging station. The back wall that holds chapter book series.

Small portion of the reference section One side of the media center outer wall that holds
of the media center. desktop computers for the students to use. The
exact same set up is on the other outer wall.
Circulation desk with the two offices behind it. The The Smartboard that is used for
teacher workroom is the room to the left and the class instruction and meetings.
server/storage room is the room to the right.
Virtual Facilities

Bulloch Academy does a good job at keeping up with the changing technology, but as a

small private school the budget is a big concern. Wireless is available throughout the whole

campus. The media center contains 20 desktop computers that are available to students before,

during and after school. Teachers can sign up as a class to use the desktop computers. Two

laptop carts and 2 Google Chrome carts with 25 computers on each cart are stored in the media

center. Those carts are available to the teachers to check out and take back to their classrooms.

The laptop carts are able to print to the media centers two wireless printers. If students bring

their own devices they are able to have access to the schools wireless internet. One of the rooms

in the media center house the schools servers as well as the security camera recording

equipment. Teachers also have available for checkout 4 Elmos, 3 overheads and 5 SmartTablets.

The media center does not have a separate website, but it is in the plans for the coming school

year. Parents can access AR information n from the schools main website under the

academics heading. The school has a filtering software system in place through iboss. Students

are only allowed to view materials that have been filtered. Material is blocked on the basis of

key words that are inappropriate or danger for students to view. Teachers can speak with our

technology director to get websites or key words unblocked so students are able to view material

they will need to use for class instruction. Currently the school does not have e-books or e-

readers, but that is something that the board is looking into adding to the media center.

The school does not have a dedicated website, but would like to get one created for the

upcoming school year. The students use Destiny as their online catalog and circulation system.

The school participates in Accelerated Reader through Renaissance. Parents and students have

access to AR from home. Parents can view their childs points total and scores on test taken.
Parents can even get this information on their mobile devices. When implemented the schools

website would contain resources helpful to both parents and students. It would have a Symbaloo

for each school; lower, middle, and high. These pages would focus on students past and present

topics of study. The website would also have author and book features, and upcoming events

pertaining to the media center.

Changes Needed to the Facility

There are positives as well as changes that can be made to the Bulloch Academy media

center. The media center is inviting to the students as it is, but could use some upgrades. The

majority of the changes that need to be made are updating the physical and virtual facilities. To

be able to make these upgrades and changes, the media center needs money. Each year the

media specialist uses what is left in the years budget to make little improvements in the media

center. If the media specialist does not use the money it gets absorbed into the general budget.

There needs to be space where students have soft seating and can meet in small groups rather

than sit at the large tables that are used for class instruction. The furniture serves the purpose for

students to work, but new furniture is now on the market where when put together it makes large

tables or they can be broken apart for smaller group work. The media specialist had the art

teacher come in and paint quotes and murals on the wall. The students were really excited to see

the change at the beginning of the year. The media specialist is in talks with the headmaster

about creating a media center website that would be affiliated with the schools website. The

students seem to like using the laptops more than the desktops. I would suggest when it is time

for the desktops to be phased out replace them with laptop computers, to have more of a caf feel

with counters instead of big bulking computer tables. There was a conference room in the back

of the media center that is now the development office for the school. This is where students
would go and have a quiet area to take test. The school needs to find another area/room for

students who need quiet to go and take test or just have a quiet area to study. There needs to be a

room for the computers. This would open up lots of floor spaces around the outer walls of the

media center where they could put soft group seating. A separate area for lower school story

time would be beneficial not only to the lower school students but to those working in the media

center. There is a plan to build a new administration and media center wing at Bulloch

Academy. The media specialist will have a chance to give her input in the design of the new

media center. She hopes that they will take some of her suggestions when drawing up the plans.