Library Programs and Technology Integration
The Rosendale-Brandon School District’s library media program’s philosophy is to help each student excel and achieve maximum potential by providing a 21st Century learning environment, fostering a love of reading, and promoting the effective use of information and communications technology. This objective reflects the school and district goals of increasing student achievement through collaboration and the use of technology.
In addition to information literacy skills, the library program also promotes lifelong learning by emphasizing reading for pleasure, enrichment, and recreation. Information resources are increasingly produced in formats that are more diverse. This poses new challenges in the areas of acquisition, access, and storage. Students and staff have access to diverse multicultural collections, which contain recreational as well as informational materials. Collections include books, reference tools such as databases through Badgerlink, recorded books, e-Books, MakerSpace kits, and other nonprint materials as well as the technologies to provide access to these electronic information resources.
The LMS selects resources to meet the diverse needs of the student population, including a span of reading levels from grades 4K-12. Although the community is not very culturally diverse, the LMS still considers the national population pattern as she selects materials. She regularly solicits suggestions for purchase from staff members and from students.
The District has tried to make many of its resources available online. Currently, students and staff are able to inter-library loan using Destiny. With the addition of SORA in 2020, students can access ebooks and recorded books both at school and while at home. The state-provided Badgerlink resource is also used by students and staff.
While the IMC in all buildings offer space for special needs students to work both independently and with aides, most computer-based special education services are located in the suite of classrooms for students with learning disabilities and speech impairments. Those teachers use software to read higher-level materials to their students as well as pages from the Internet.
Staffing
In the 2022-23 school year, the media center staff consists of a part-time library media technology specialist (LMTS) at the primary, elementary intermediate, and middle schools with a full-time library media technology specialist at the high school. Generally, the library media technology specialist arrives at 7:40 AM and departs around 3:30 pm. Staffing has changed throughout the years with the addition of more classroom responsibilities at the middle school level, 1:1 programming at the high school, and traveling at the elementary level with a significant reduction and subsequent removal of assistant time. The library media technology specialist still serves as the first point of contact for any technology concerns in their assigned buildings as well.
Technology Integration
The library media technology specialists hold multiple roles within the district including, but not limited to, library services, technology integrationist, staff development, technology support, and classroom teacher. The district provides a Chrome device to every student and staff member and has completed installing a touch panel or tv screen with a Chromebox in every classroom. There are also Windows machines in some special education and school offices and other miscellaneous devices throughout the buildings that the library media technology specialists help service. They provide training on the devices, software, and other programs as needed. They are an active member of the technology committee offering insight regarding problems, solutions, services, projects, devices, and purchases and bringing concerns expressed from the staff.
Technology Spiral K-8 (current technology spiral)
K-3 Library Skills (currently updating)
The library media technology specialists (under the direction of the curriculum director in the fall of 2023) are in the process of restructuring and aligning the library curriculum with state and national standards. The elementary library media technology specialist collaborates with classroom teachers to integrate technology skills into lessons that correlate to core contect standards.