To: Tina Ethridge

From: Amy Wise

Date: November 1, 2017

Subject: Evaluation of the Media Center

The 2016 Judy Serritella Exemplary Library Media Program Self-Evaluation Rubric was used to evaluate
our library. As you know, the media specialist is me, so it was kind of a bitter experience to rate some of
my program as basic! However, there were some exemplary areas also. About half of the 21 target
indicators were considered proficient for the media center. Overall, several of the basic ratings are
things that will be changed once I become more efficient at my job. On one hand, I have inherited some
problems from the outgoing media specialist, but on the other hand, she set me up with a well-
organized library with plenty of good literature and a library clerk that is very efficient in her work.

Generally, the media center gets high grades for having a full-time media specialist. The county
procures the funds to make this possible at our school. Our library clerk is half day in the library, but her
duties to the computer lab are also a necessity. As a former teacher well versed in our states standards,
it helps the rating of the media center when I am able to use the standards from each grade to help
build up their curriculum. That is not totally up and running yet, but I know that at the beginning of the
year meetings with teachers for TKES, you and the other administrators insisted that I am used to work
with top students as a form of differentiation. So when the teachers work me into their schedule as
they see my usefulness, which will become an ever-evolving asset to the schools learning environment.
At this point, the media center is not at a really strong point, but when the media specialist (also known
as me!) gets more experience with the job, it will be a very useful educational tool.

There were several areas that our media center was graded at the basic stage. It was very interesting to
me that the bar is very high just to get a basic rating. I will show the areas that were determined to be
basic and then I will show the action steps to address those areas.
The library media center resources encourage and support reading, viewing, and listening. I
graded us as basic which reads: Bulletin boards and displays of books and reading materials
reflect different aspects of the curriculum, holidays, and community interests to support
recreational reading. I thought I was doing good to do that! However, to bump it up, I should
offer events and activities for the students. This is something that I will plan on doing when I get
more comfortable with the many angles of my job!
Services are provided to students who have diverse learning abilities, styles, and needs. This was
graded as basic which reads: The library media center resources reflect diverse learning abilities,
styles, and needs. We have many things in our library that do reflect the diverse learning
abilities. Just look in the teacher workroom which has shelves stacked with many materials
available for the teachers to check out! One thing I need to do to become proficient is to inform
the teachers of their existence. I can easily do that in my monthly Update from the Library
newsletter I create. I can have a little portion of the newsletter set aside for cool things for
teachers to utilize.
Student achievement is routinely assessed. I graded us as basic because the classroom teacher is
responsible for assessing student behavior. To become proficient, I would have to work with
the teachers to create a rubric to assess the students along with the teacher. This is something
that will take a while to work into. As a former teacher, I would not have been comfortable with
 a fellow teacher working WITH me on assessment. I know for a fact that many other teachers
would agree with that. So I will have to research on how to do this in a way to help the other
teachers and not intimidate them!
One of the national educational technology goals states: Effective and engaging software and
on-line resources will be an integral part of every schools curriculum. The GALILEO Virtual
Library provides Georgia students and teachers access to exceptional on-line resources at no cost
to the local school district. GALILEO is a library that has quality information for the students at
no cost. However, the program itself is not totally user-friendly, so it inhibits students from
using it because the teachers do not want to use it because of its unfriendliness. At a
conference over the summer, I met with the man that helps to run the program and he actually
comes out to individual schools to do professional development for free! It may be that we will
have to make some use of that offer!
The local system superintendent shall appoint a system media contact person (SMCP) to serve as
a liaison to the department. I have no idea who our systems media contact person might be, so
I graded our school as basic. I will find out if we even have that person in our county and find
out what I have been missing from her!
Administrative staff support at both the school and district levels is essential for the development
of a strong library media program. Since this deals with administration, I want you to know that
I am not thinking you are not helpful. The basic statement reads: The school principal provides
support to the library media program and makes time to meet with the Library Media Specialist
occasionally. I am sure that you will want to see what proficient is: The school principal and
district administrators take an active role in encouraging teachers to integrate library media
resources into the curriculum. School, department, and district level administrators meet
regularly with the Library Media Specialist. You have done an excellent job in supporting me to
get students from every grade level into the media center. As I mentioned before, as part of
TKES, you told the teachers they must use me. I believe that what the next step would be is to
encourage district level administrators to meet regularly with the media specialists.
Each local board of education shall adopt a library media policy that provides for the
establishment of a media committee at the system level and at each school. A library media
committee makes recommendations and decisions relating to planning, operation, evaluation,
and improvement of the library media program. This committee shall annually evaluate library
media services and develop a multi-year media plan for budget services and priorities. This is an
easy one to fix: get a media committee!
Local Board approved library media policy is current. This policy requires development of
procedures for the school system and for selecting materials locally, handling requests for
reconsideration of materials, considering gifts of instructional resources, using non-school owned
materials, and complying with the copyright law. I know for a fact that the library media policy
is not current and it is very hard to find. I had to look it up for my coursework and could not find
it! When my professor helped me, it was apparent that it had not been touched recently. It
must be more consistently updated and much easier to find!
Each local school system shall spend 100 percent of the funds designated for library media center
costs. The basic rating reads: The library media program receives an allocation for expenditures
every year. This amount meets the minimum expenditure tests. It would be awesome if local
supplements could boost the state allocation! I am not sure how to change this one, but maybe
there will be opportunity in the future to do so.
Staff development opportunities are available both for the library media staff to enhance their
own professional knowledge and for the library media staff to provide information and
 technology literacy skills to other teachers and administrative staff. Professional resources and
services for all faculty members are provided in the library media center for the "learning
community". As a media specialist, I have been able to go to a RESA media specialist forum and
my school purchases a magazine, School Library Journal, in which I can keep up to date on some
aspects of my job. However, at this point I am not looking for opportunities to learn more than
that which is required for my certification, but after I get done with my degree from Georgia
Southern, I will have more time and interest in that.

I would like to state a goal that I have from moving up from proficient in one standard to exemplary.
One standard I graded the media center as proficient is this: Professional library media staff are
engaged in active teaching role/s. My heart is still in teaching; that is why I am choosing to be called a
teacher-librarian vs. media specialist. So in this role, I would like to move on from planning and
teaching collaboratively with the teachers to being a true teacher in the library, including differentiation
for the needs of different students, true assessments discussed with the teachers and even giving those
assessments as needed. In other words, my media center would become another classroom.

This is what I submit to you as the state of our media center. There are many ways that it can be
improved and I will work hard on it!