1. To: Mrs. Tami Flowers
From: Ms. Melissa Lewis
CC: Ms. Mary Anne Heim
Topic: Library Media Program Evaluation Rubric
As a team, Ms. Heim and I recently completed the Georgia DOE Library Media
Program Self-Evaluation Rubric. This gave us an opportunity to evaluate the
media program in four categories on the scale of basic, proficient, or exemplary.
The four categories were Student Achievement and Instruction; Staffing;
Facilities, Access, and Resources; and Administrative Support. Overall our
program meets or exceeds the standards, but there were areas that we found
could be better improved in order to categorize our media center program as
exemplary across the board.
Collaboration is an essential part of the success of any school program. All staff
members must work together to effectively educate the student body. During our
evaluation collaboration was a trouble spot that we found. Although we
determined that collaboration between the media center and classroom teachers
in encouraged, it is not extensively present. The only categories our program
was evaluated as basic was in the category of collaboration. Information literacy
skills are taught in our school, but in isolation and not fully integrated in to the
curriculum. Ms. Heim makes recommendations for projects and lessons, but
does not directly collaborate with teachers to create and implement lessons
within the classroom or assess students on curriculum standards.
In order to address these categories related to collaboration that were rated as
basic Ms. Heim and I developed several strategies that can be implemented.
First, we agree that she should begin attending monthly grade level team
meetings. During these meetings she can begin to directly collaborate with
teachers on each team and build an instructional relationship with them.
In the category of staffing our program was evaluated as exemplary due to the
fact that we have a full time media specialist and clerk. Having two full time
employees in the media center who are not shared by any other department in
the school makes it possible for the program to be fully supervised, and for
personnel to be available for support to students and staff during the entire
instructional day.
One thing that Ms. Heim is very proud of and was found through the evaluation is
the fact that our program truly runs on a flexible schedule. Students and staff
have access to the facility and resources in media center throughout the entire
instructional day. However, there are not additional hours outside of the regular
school day where the media center is open. This is something that we feel we
can target and raise our rating from proficient to exemplary. We created an
action plan for this category that is attached to the memo.

2. Overall, our media center shows exemplary aspects to it. There are great
aspects to our program and students are given equal access to information that
will help to foster a lifetime love of reading. However, through the evaluation it is
clear that improvements can be made to raise our program to a higher
excellence.