Library Services
The Chesterfield School Library Media Center provides materials and resources to support and encourage students in their journeys to become lifelong learners as well as effective, responsible users and producers of information. The media center is staffed by a certified library media specialist with assistance from a few highly trusted and trained parent volunteers.
The library media center provides a rich collection of traditional print media (books), audio books, a variety of digital database resources, as well as in-house use of computers, iPads and an interactive smart board. All resources are selected by the library media specialist (LMS) with consideration of reading levels, interests, and relevance to the curriculum. Professional review sources are used in making collection-development decisions. Student, teacher and parent suggestions are welcome for possible selections for the collection.
Regular instruction is provided in the library media center to promote book selection skills, reading as a source of personal enjoyment and to satisfy individual, intellectual curiosity, research skills, and digital literacy skills such as, website evaluation, internet research, privacy, and becoming responsible consumers and producers of digital information. Additionally, the library media specialist provides support to and engages in collaborative learning opportunities with classroom teachers. Instruction topics, lessons and projects are designed to engage students as well as meet a variety of information literacy standards including the American Association of Librarians (AASL) standards, the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) standards and the Common Core State Standards (CCSS).
Students, staff and parents may borrow materials from the library. The checkout limit for students increases as students get older (1 book in Kindergarten up to a maximum of 6 items for older students) but may be modified if a student is struggling to return books in a timely fashion. Parents/guardians are ultimately responsible for the cost of lost/destroyed library materials. Periodic reminders are sent home throughout the school year regarding overdue items and letters are sent at the end of the year detailing the cost of missing items. The Chesterfield School Library Media Center provides a wonderful opportunity for students to make their own choices regarding reading materials as well as an opportunity to learn to be responsible library patrons.