Current Circulation Policy of Liberty County School System

Books will be checked out for a one-week period. The number of books checked out by
students varies by school, and should be noted in the schools on-site media handbook. A letter
explaining media center circulation procedures will be given to all students at the beginning of
the school year. (A copy of this letter can be found in the Appendix.)
Overdue notices will be sent out once a month. Students may not check out audiovisual
materials or computer software. When materials are overdue, fines are automatically accrued on
a students account. The amounts are as follows:

Reference books - $.25/day

Regular books, magazines - $.05/day

Laptops and digital cameras - $5.00/day

charged fines for days when school is not in session (weekends, student holidays). No student is
allowed to check out materials if he/she has overdue materials or fines on his/her account.
Overdue notices will be issued on a regular basis throughout the school year.
Analysis
At Taylors Creek Elementary, students are limited to two book checkouts for 7 school
days. This does not include any eBooks or reference materials. Technology and audio/visual
equipment are also not available for student checkout, but teachers can check out any materials
as long as they need. There is not a current policy to address parent checkout, however parents
must sign the media centers acceptable use policy for their child to borrow items in the library.
In regards to overdue books, students are fined $0.05 for each school day over the 7 day
checkout period. If a book has not been turned in within a month, it is considered lost and it is

the parents responsibility to pay the replacement fee. This fee also applies if the book is
damaged. Until the fee is paid, the child may not check out books and their report card is held.
These rules and regulations are listed in Liberty Countys circulation policy, which
allows only middle and high school students to borrow more costly media, such as reference
items, iPads, digital cameras, and laptops. This environment of mistrust for younger students is
detrimental to the foundational skills that need to be learned at the elementary level. In order to
foster a population of successful 21st century learners, all library items at all grade levels should
be able to be checked out by teachers, parents, and students. According to the article, Reading
By Grade Three: How Well Do School Library Circulation Policies Support Early Reading? a
library that limits circulation is not making choices that support literacy, especially early literacy
(Johnson & Donham, 2012). This access to additional resources would level the educational
playing field for a lot of stakeholders and would most likely spark a huge interest in the library
for families. Taylors Creek Elementary would not have to change much to accomplish this
besides rewording their acceptable use policy and providing safe packaging to take technology
home.
If elementary students were able to check out more materials, including eBooks, this may
also create the need for the county to expand its viewpoint on BYOT. Currently, students are not
allowed to BYOT due to the 1:1 technology initiative. It is guaranteed that students have 1:1
access to tablets and computers, but this does not address how a student would access an eBook
away from the school. If students agree to terms of use, they should be able to checkout eBooks
to read on their own devices. Additionally, giving a child access to the librarys online resources
using BYOT, such as the LMS or other Web 2.0 technologies, seeks to build their aptitude in
transliteracy. The 2015 Horizon Report supports this claim and adds that, BYOD has profound

implications for K-12 education because it creates the conditions for student-centered learning to
take place. (The New Media Consortium, 2015).
Loertscher and Koechlin state that a learning commons is defined by, attention to
excellent instructional design, using best resources and technologies, and building personal
expertise and collaborative knowledge. (2014). As the circulation policy of Taylors Creek
Elementary stands, it is not indicative of a learning commons. It lacks both BYOT and equitable,
multi-faceted access to all students, parents, and teachers. Also, the purpose of a learning
commons is to draw people to an area where they feel they can create and thrive, and the media
center at Taylors Creek does not currently do that. Changing the circulation policy would be an
excellent first step for this media center to take in order to become a learning commons.
Suggested Circulation Policy
Taylors Creek Elementary School Media Center strives to serve all stakeholders through its
Circulation Policy. Any stakeholder (student, parent, or teacher) wishing to checkout media may
do so for a 2 week period. Under this period, the following limits exist for checkout:

Books, eBooks- Unlimited checkouts

Technology (tablets, laptop, digital camera, video recorders)- 1 checkout per household
every 2 weeks

Items are considered overdue after 14 school days and are subject to fine on the applicable
account. Items will be considered lost after 1 month and are subject to replacement cost. It is up
to the librarians discretion for stakeholders to checkout media if they have fines on their
account. The following fines will be due on the 15th school day and each day after the media in
question is not turned in:

Books- 5/day

Technology- $3.00/day

If a stakeholder is unable to pay their fine for lost or overdue books or overdue technology,
they may volunteer in the library for $1.00 per hour. Lost technology is subject to a fine for its
replacement cost and must be paid off by the end of the school year. Legal action may be taken
against the stakeholder if the lost technology is not paid for.
Current Scheduling Policy
The media center at Taylors Creek has flexible/open scheduling. This means that a
teacher can bring her class at any time to the media center. The media specialist has a sign up
book for teachers to sign up for lessons to be taught to their class or for class visits to check out
books. The Media Center is never closed during the instructional day.

The Media Center is officially open each day from 7:15 AM until 3:15 PM. Materials and
books may be used or checked out at any time during the day. Please allow your students
enough time to be sure they are in the classroom to leave for their buses. Students may
not leave for the bus from the Media Center without permission Students must also go to
class before coming to the Media Center in the morning.

The teacher and SLMS need to plan together for all classes that the Media Specialist is
involved in.

Sign up in the Media Plan Book if you would like the media specialist to visit your
classroom for a book talk, skill lessons, or storytelling.

Teachers may bring their classes to the Media Center at any time to check out books
without scheduling the visit with the media specialist.

Visits to the Media Center with the classroom teacher for research purposes do not need
to be scheduled, but it is advisable to make sure that the necessary reference materials
and equipment will be available.

Analysis
The flexible/open scheduling of the media center provides the perfect environment for the
21st century learner. Students are allowed to visit the media center anytime they desire. This
allows students the opportunity to explore and formulate questions to be researched. IPads,
desktop computers, and printers are readily available to students for these such purposes
Taylors Creeks BYOT or BYOD policy says that students are not allowed to bring their
own technology because every student has an iPad checked out to them for the entire school
year. Since the iPads are portable, students are able to bring the device with them to the media
center to utilize the library catalog as well as be able to research during media lessons.
With the flexible/open scheduling, students are able to come to the media center as they
need to, allowing them the opportunity to learn how to use Web 2.0 technology. Students are
taught how to use Wixie, Popplet, Keynote, and iMovie by the media specialist. The scheduling
really comes in handy at this time of year when students are creating media festival projects to
submit to the county and state competition.
EBooks are readily available to students. Taylors Creek uses www.myon.com where
students can access eBooks 24/7. Myon is created by Metametrics; the same company that uses
Lexile measurements. Flexible scheduling in the media center allows for students to enjoy
eBooks in a quiet reading spot anytime they wish as well as at home.
Taylors Creek is in the middle of developing the creative commons area of the media
center. Currently, there are not enough tables to accommodate the larger classes at the school.

More tables are being brought in to accommodate the larger classes for collaborative lessons.
The current independent reading section still needs more work in order to provide a more
comfortable reading area. It is in the works to replace hard stools with more comfortable seating
to encourage more reading for pleasure stations.
Current Services
Taylors Creek Elementary School's Media Center list of services include enabling
communication for resource sharing and innovation for global networking by offering Internet
access, eBooks, laptops, and iPads for educational purposes only. The Media Center also
participates in the Reading Bowl. Users have an Internet use agreement, including a code of
conduct signature page. Patrons are not allowed to search for inappropriate sites or view racist,
sexist, pornographic, obscene or threatening materials. Patrons are also not allowed to make
solicitations or purchases. Patrons do not conduct unethical or illegal activities or conduct
commercial for profit activities. Patrons will need permission to download copyrighted materials.
The technology department has a monitoring system and provides password protected social
tools for eLearning and collaboration purposes.
Taylors Creek Elementary School policies and procedures are within AASL, SLMP and
district guidelines and provide services that support teaching and learning by making sure
teachers and students have access to a variety of instructional and research resources. District
administrators facilitate to promote ethical use of their resources and the services they provide.
Current Ethics and Legal Principles

It is the responsibility of Taylors Creek Elementary Media Center to instill moral and
ethical disciplines within its patrons. To make this resource available to all users of Taylors
Creek Elementary School Media Center, the following policies will be established:

The Media Specialist will provide one class to discuss copyright and creative commons
procedures. During this session, issues of ethical information, intellectual freedom, and
patron confidentiality (privacy) will be discussed.

Each student will have documentation of the class signed by both the student and parent
or guardian and returned before any electronic device can be used.

The Media Specialist will provide a PowerPoint lecture to be utilized by the faculty
discussing copyright and creative commons procedures. Also included in the presentation
will be issues of ethical information, intellectual freedom, and patron confidentiality
(privacy). This will be done yearly before the start of the calendar school year.

A waiver signed by the faculty member will be utilized as confirmation that the
PowerPoint has been viewed.
The Media Center will also provide web-filtering software by Umbrella by OpenDNS.

This is to instill self-regulation and provide accountability within each individual student.
Umbrella provides protection for the schools technology and allows each user to exercise their
intellectual freedom. Umbrellas cloud based coverage allows all technology to be covered
regardless of location of device. Umbrella prohibits users to download anything to the device,
protecting the device from malware.
Additional Resources for Ethics and Legal Principles

Copyright Information for Kids

http://www.copyrightkids.org

http://www.cyberbee.com/cb_copyright.swf

https://www.commonsensemedia.org/videos/copyright-and-fair-use-animation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtJdfHXk_u8

Copyright for Adults

https://www.commonsensemedia.org/videos/copyright-and-fair-use-animation

https://www.commonsensemedia.org/educators/certification

http://arielkatz.org/archives/3578

Creative Commons
o

https://creativecommons.org

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHmQ8euNwv8

http://www.librarygirl.net/2013/08/free-to-use-and-share-resources-to-help.html

Ethical Information
o

http://www.education.com/magazine/article/Teaching_Child_Ethics/

http://smallbusiness.chron.com/ethical-dilemma-use-information-technology18366.html

Intellectual Freedom
o

http://www.ala.org/alsc/sites/ala.org.alsc/files/content/issuesadv/intellectualfreedo
m/kidsknowyourrights.pdf

https://youthserviceslibrarianship.wikispaces.com/Intellectual+Freedom

Patron Confidentiality
o

http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/qa-privacy

http://sfpl.org/pdf/about/administration/privacypolicyfaq.pdf