Our Mission

The mission of the School Library Media Program at Sternberger Elementary is to help students and staff members to become lifelong readers and lifelong learners and to ensure that they can effectively locate and use information and ideas.

What We Do

The school library media center (SLMC) acts as the school's information center, integrating print, nonprint, and online resources into the curriculum. The school library media specialist teaches lessons to students on information skills -- how to locate and use information -- as well as other skills that pertain to reading and literature. (Click to view the Information Skills Curriculum .) To do this, the library media specialist works together, or collaborates, with classroom teachers to set student learning objectives (What will students be able to do after this lesson or unit?), select teaching strategies and resources (How will we teach the skills and what resources will we use?), provide instruction (teach the lesson or unit), assess student learning (Were they able to do what we had hoped?), and evaluate the overall learning experience (Did it go like we had hoped or will we do things differently next time?).

How We Do It

The school library media program's goal is to operate by a system of flexible access so that students and staff members have access to the teaching services of the library media specialist and to the library media center facilities and resources when they need them. In a system of flexible acess, instructional or class time in the library media center is determined by the learning objectives set by the teacher and the media specialist rather than an arbitrary time slot. Instruction is provided to individuals, small groups, and large groups in order to best meet the needs of students.

In addition to her dedication to providing leadership in the use of instructional and information technology, the school library media specialist takes seriously her obligation to promote the skill and enjoyment of reading in the development of independent, lifelong learners.