Library Media Center
The library media center at Central Elementary School aims to aid students in achieving 21st century learning by providing not only great books for leisurely reading, but also up-to-date databases and digital resources for students. The library is a place that contains knowledge you could not otherwise acquire, allows you to travel to places you could never imagine, and gives experiences that you could never have otherwise.
View the Central Elementary School Library Schedule
Main Contact
Shayla Thomas
Library Media Specialist
More to Explore
Mission
Our Mission
The mission of the library media center is to encourage students to ask questions, be curious, explore, and learn.
The library media center objectives are to
- Advocate for the curriculum-based and independent reading and researching needs of our students, teachers, and administrators
- Provide materials for students to both enjoy at leisure as well as conduct curriculum or independent research
- Promote literacy and literacy appreciation
- Equip teachers with resources to incorporate in the classroom along with tools that can be used in the library to enhance lessons and learning objectives
- Bring awareness and encourage use of both physical, print, and electronic resources available to students and faculty
Library Services & Policies
Library Services
- 1 Chromebook cart with 25 Chromebooks
- 16 Lenovo 10e Chromebook Tablets for teacher checkout
- Faculty can use the library and its resources for a meeting place for faculty or parent meeting providing all necessary tools to ensure effective communication and collaboration with prior notice and reservation
Join Mrs. Thomas's Schoology course for videos, book suggestions, and to stay up-to-date with the CES Library: 7V39-6PZH-HTTFG
Available in ClassLink:
- MackinVision: Search the Central Elementary School library catalog.
- Sora Digital Library: Download ebooks and audiobooks.
- myON: Read unlimited ebooks without checking out.
- Alabama Virtual Library: Online research websites, free to any resident of Alabama!
Circulation Policies
- Kindergarten students check out 1 book at a time and must keep books at school in their classroom.
- First grade students check out 2 books at a time.
- Second grade students check out 2 books at a time.
- Third, fourth, and fifth grade students check out 3 books at a time.
- Books check out for 1 week at a time
- Reference materials are allowed to be checked out with teacher's permission only.
- No late fees, but students must return their books to get new ones.
- Replacement/damage charges are enforced when necessary.
- All items should be returned to the circulation desk.
Collaboration
CES has a flexible library schedule. The library is open to all students between 7:45 AM and 8:15 AM daily for use of the computers or check out. All students must have a pass from their teacher. Teachers are encouraged to bring their classes to the library to work on research or computer-based projects with prior arrangement. Teachers must reserve the library one week in advance by contacting the librarian. We love that all students have designated time in the library, but we also want to promote concentration and focused learning, and therefore ask to have only one class at a time in the library due to limited space and seating. The library is open daily 7:45- 2:30. The schedule is attached here.
Teachers who would like to plan direct collaboration with the librarian are welcome to do so by scheduling a meeting during their preparation period or to drop by during the library’s open time. The librarian is ready and willing to provide teachers with printed materials and technological resources for their class. The librarian also encourages teachers to use the librarian as an individual, as a resource who can lead parts of the class in lessons on research techniques, reference and research resources (both print and electronic), citation procedures, summarization techniques, and ways to avoid plagiarism.
Meet the Librarian
My name is Shayla Thomas, and I am the library media specialist at Central Elementary School. I am originally from Macon, MS but have called Tuscaloosa home since 2015. I attended the University of West Alabama and graduated with my Bachelors in Elementary Education, Masters in Elementary Education, and Education Specialist in Elementary Education. Moreover, I recieved an Education Specialist in Library Media. I'm married to my wonderful husband Michael and we have two sons, Malachy and Myles. I am so excited to be at Central Elementary and can't wait to see all of the students face to face very soon!
Personal Philosophy
As a Library Media specialist, it is my job to to see that students not only have open access to a plethora of materials that both support the curriculum and a personal thirst for knowledge, but that they also receive the benefit of the librarian's active, ongoing collaboration with the academic and special-area teachers in the building. It is important that I encourage a love for reading and support a quest for information by promoting a wide variety of reading programs and content-specific activities through the library. The library must be accessible to all students, no matter their academic proficiency; there must be materials suitable for all needs and/or challenges.
Central Elementary's library will be an active, busy, yet non-intimidating, place for students to use for a variety of purposes. Before and after school access is important, as well as a flexible daily schedule. The technology that will available here will include up-to-date computers that have a variety of educational software and media installed, research databases available for student and staff use, Internet access for research, and Web 2.0 applications that are actively and creatively used. Books and other printed material will include a current Reference section, a wide variety of the best fiction, current print periodicals (with archived periodicals on the computers), and a full range of nonfiction to support all curricular areas. Professional resources for teachers and administrators will have a prominent place in the school library and I will create a comfortable reading area for teachers and staff.
Ethics & Acceptable Use
Intellectual Freedom
At CES, we believe all students should have access to the materials they want. We do our best to provide the most up to date materials for our students to meet the needs of their school research and personal inquires. There are filters on our computers to prevent students from accessing social media sites and sites that could prove harmful according to the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) like obscenities, pornography, etc.
Privacy
All students have their privacy protected at CES. All materials inquired about or check-out remain private unless the librarian sees a chance of harm being done to or by the student in which case the librarian will speak to the guidance counselor for help.
Copyright and Plagiarism
Copyright infringement and plagiarism is not tolerated at CES. Techniques to avoid these things are taught in the library as well as in the language arts classes. If there is any question as to what is “free game,” see the Fair Use and Creative Commons links below, and as always, we encourage students to ask questions when they are unsure if they are breaking copyright laws or plagiarizing.
Challenging Materials
Parents and students may challenge materials in the school's media center. If a parent or students sees an item as unnecessary or inappropriate, they may schedule a meeting with the librarian to handle this situation. If the challenger is not satisfied, the challenge will then be presented to the principal, guidance counselor, and head of each grade level. In the end, the final say goes to the decision made by the principal and the librarian.
Acceptable Use Policy
CES students have access to the Internet, school network, and other electronic resources to meet their school-related needs. Students may have access to the Internet ONLY with a teacher’s permission, and ONLY for educational needs. Access to the Internet through school resources is a privilege, not a right, and may be revoked for inappropriate or unauthorized use as determined by district authorities.
Unless specifically authorized, the district prohibits the following activities and any others determined to be unacceptable uses of school system technology:
- Allowing another person to use an assigned account.
- Use of technology for non-school related communications.
- Use of technology to access obscene or pornographic material.
- Use of technology to transmit material likely to be offensive or objectionable to recipients.
- Use of technology to communicate through e-mail for non-educational purposes or activities.
- Use of technology to participate in inappropriate and/or objectionable discussions or newsgroups.
- Use of technology to disseminate hate mail, harassment, discriminatory remarks, or other antisocial communication.
- Use of technology to plagiarize any information whether or not that results in a copyright violation.
- The illegal installation, distribution, reproduction or use of copyrighted software on district computers.
- Loading, downloading, or use of unauthorized games, programs, files or other electronic media, including peer-to-peer applications used to download songs, movies, or software illegally.
- Malicious use of computers or the network to develop or distribute programs that harass other users, infiltrate a computer system, and/or damage the software or components of a computer system.
- Use of technology to facilitate any illegal activity.
Violation of the above is subject but not limited to the suspension and/or dismissal of all parties involved. In addition, the district and/or its designees reserve the right to pursue civil and/or criminal prosecution as the situation warrants.
Adapted from http://www.kms.keene.k12.nh.us/auphbk and http://www.greenville.k12.sc.us/Departments/main.asp?titleid=etsaup