Dr. Jud Copeland, associate professor of Leadership Studies, is always happy to report how his students are successfully applying classroom concepts to real situations. In the Library Media (LIBM 6380) Administration of Information Programs class, students are required to remodel an existing library media center facility or to design a new one. The Facilities Design assignment requires the investigation of a current school library media center design, obtaining a copy of the blueprints, rating the current facilities, and determining if the center meets the current population’s needs (its strengths and weaknesses).
Angela Criss, who is working as the librarian at Harrisburg Middle School while pursuing her library media master degree at UCA, used her own library at the middle school to develop the library improvement design for Dr. Copeland’s class. She then used the information from the assignment to apply for a Lowe’s grant and was recently awarded $4,400 to incorporate part of those changes to the Harrisburg Middle School library media center, including an outdoor reading space.
Angela has promoted several fun and interesting activities in her library that include:
• Book fairs
• A trick-or-treat activity at Halloween where students drew titles out of a pumpkin and then located the title in the library and then read the book in question
• A “book tasting” event where she set up the library as a café so students could pass around new books and write the titles of ones they would like to read in the future on their “menu”
• Angela’s school was recently awarded an Apple grant and all students will be receiving