ü  by providing intellectual and physical access to materials in all formats

ü  by providing instruction to foster competence and stimulate interest in reading, viewing, and using information and idea

ü   by working with other educators to design learning strategies to meet the needs of students

1. To provide intellectual access to information through systematic learning activities which develop cognitive strategies for selecting, retrieving, analyzing, evaluating, synthesizing, and creating information at all age levels and in all curriculum.
   
2. To provide physical access to information through (a) a carefully selected and systematically organized collection of diverse learning resources, representing a wide range of subjects, levels of difficulty, communication formats, and technological delivery systems; (b) access to information and materials outside the library media center and the school building through such mechanisms as inter-library loan, networking and other cooperative agreements, and online searching of databases; and (c) providing instruction in the operation of equipment necessary to use the information in any format. 
   
3. To provide learning experiences that encourage users to become discriminating consumers and skilled creators of information through introduction to the full range of communications media and use of the new and emerging information technologies.
   
4.  To provide leadership, instruction, and consulting assistance in the use of instructional and information technology and the use of sound instruction design principles. 
   
5. To provide resources and activities that contribute to lifelong learning, while accommodating a wide range of differences in teaching and learning styles and in instructional methods, interests, and capacities.
   
6. To provide a facility that functions as the information center of the County Office of Education as the center of activity for integrated, interdisciplinary, inter-grade, and district wide learning activities.
   
7. To provide resources and learning activities that represent a diversity of experiences, opinions, social and cultural perspectives, supporting the concept that intellectual freedom and access to information are prerequisite to effective and responsible citizenship in a democracy. 

           

Full integration of the library media program into the curriculum  a partnership among the library media specialist, district level personnel, administers, and teachers the serious commitment of each of those partners to the value of universal unrestricted access to information and ideas.

 The Challenges:

A number of challenges face school library media specialists as they seek to fulfill the miss of the program.  The challenges result from a barite of influences and have the potential to radically reshape the services school library media specialist offer, the environment in which we work, and the profession to which we belong.  To determine the implications of those challenges for library media program, it is important to examine briefly some of the influences that produced them.

• CHALLENGE 1:  To provide intellectual and physical access to information and ideas for a diverse population whose needs are always changing. 

ü  How does the media center serve so many diverse populations with complex needs? 

ü  What are the library media specialist’s responsibility in working with administrators and teachers to promote new and existing information and instructional resources and technologies and ensure that they are used effectively by teachers?

• CHALLENGE 2:  To ensure equity and freedom of access to information and ideas, unimpeded by social, cultural, economic, geographic, or technologic constraints. 

 

Approved by MCOE Board, 1989