W-WMS - W-WCHS Media Center

The traditional school library is a thing of the past. Today's modern media center has become the information hub for Washington- Wilkes Middle and High Schools, equally serving the students and faculties of both. Contemporary media centers differ from the traditional school libraries in that many forms of media, including books, magazine/journal articles, reputable Internet sites, and audiovisual materials, are used to gather and synthesize information. The media staff works with teachers and students in order to help them learn how to find information in the most effective and efficient way.

Students typically fill the media center when it opens each day at 7:30 a.m. During the school day, students come to the media center with their entire class, independently, or in small groups to work on a class-related project or assignment. Passes are used to monitor the students' arrival and departure and as a means of communication between the media staff and the teachers. According to pass statistics, nearly 4000 media center passes accounted for middle and high school students working in the media center during the first semester of this school year, which does not reflect the number of students working in the media center with their entire class. The media center is open until 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday and closes at 3:30 p.m. on Fridays so that high school students have the opportunity to work on projects af- ter school.

The media center has 13 networked student computers, which are constantly being used throughout the day along with various kinds of equipment needed to produce and present student work. The media staff has just completed the final phase of the collection development plan, which included discarding aged titles from each collection and replacing them with the most current titles available. This has been a major and very worthwhile project, as Internetsavvy students are better able to see the value of using a combination of print and non-print materials in their research.

The media staff includes media specialist Beth Jackson and media clerks Sue Lance and Linda

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