Roles and Functions of an Educational Media Center

“We have said that the best ideas in the world are to be found in a modern library. But the modern educational media center must include excellence in varied media – not merely in printed materials”  – Edgar Dale

Mission/Vision

The Educational Media Center functions as a vital instrument as well as a basic requirement for quality education by enriching all parts of the school’s educational process.

• It reflects and supports the philosophy of the school.
• It shares and implements the school’s aims and objectives.
• It is involved in the teaching and learning process.
• It is a source center. In it, different forms of communication and their accompanying technology organized and housed for easy accessibility and use.
• It is learning laboratory. It provides materials which will enrich and implement the curriculum; it encourages individual exploration and inquiry; it provides materials and facilities for research and self-directed learning.
• It is a teaching agency. It teaches students how to find information; it stimulates new interests; it encourages students to use a variety of media; it keeps teachers informed about new materials and welcomes their suggestions for purchase.
• It is a service agency. In it, all procedures are established as the basis of service to students and teachers; schedules are changed and altered when necessary to serve a need; materials and equipment are circulate; use of media center facilities by individuals and groups is encouraged.
• It is a coordinating agency – It serves as central depository for various forms of media; it encourages the use of those kinds of materials which are most appropriate for the specific learning task, it provides materials which can be used by individual students and teachers as well as for small group or class needs; it is one place in the school where anyone may come at any time.
• A center for recreational reading, viewing and listening. It provides variety of recreational materials to fulfill the current needs of the range of interest and abilities for the abilities for the studentry; it provides assistance to students in the selection of these materials; it provides facilities for individual and group uses; it is concerned about the reluctant readers as well as the habitual one; it uses variety of promotional techniques to encourage use of material for recreational purposes.
• As a stepping stone to other community resource centers and to desirable lifetime intellectual habits, it introduces the students the resources available in other community resource centers. It encourages their use in adult life. It encourages the personal ownership of books and other media.

EMC Services

1. Orientation 

- All new teachers are given an orientation on the EMC, as program, role in the total Ateneo academic organization, services, facilities, guidelines and procedures during their in-service program. Hands-on training on the use of the different equipment is part of new teacher’s program. The students are also given an orientation on their first Media Instruction Program (MIP) class.

2.   Selection of print and non-print materials

- The libraries continually select and acquire print and non-print materials that suit the needs, interest and special abilities of the students and teachers. Teachers, middle supervisors, and the administration are encouraged to take active part in the selection process.

3. .Organization of print and non-print  materials

- A technical librarian organizes all the purchased print and non-print materials for easy retrieval. The Resource Organizer, the computerized system of library organization by the G-Soft Solution is already in use to facilitate effective and efficient organization such as the Dewey Decimal Classification System and the C.A. Cutter’s Three-Figure Author Table.

4. .Circulation of print and non-print materials

- The EMC lends out various types of materials to students and teachers. To make it serve efficiently, at the same time maximize the use of its resources, the EMC has prepared some guidelines that were discussed and approved by the Committee on Educational Media Resources and Services, a standing committee of the school chaired by the AHAA.

5.  Reference

- The EMC attends to request such as bibliographic information from the card catalog, search through books, periodicals, pamphlets document and non-print materials. A logbook of questions asked is available at the circulation counter. The logbook also serves as a data for the librarians in their selection, purchase, organization and publicity of materials. There are computers with Internet facilities that help facilitate this service.

6.Bibliographic Services

- There are listings of materials and periodical articles to publicize the new periodical articles in the EMC.

7. Media Instruction Program

- The media Instructional Program (MIP) aims to teach students to be skillful and discriminating users of print and non-print media. It is designed to develop the habit of inquiry and stimulate the growth and development of the young mind in independent thinking. It also aims to develop appreciation for the different forms of media. MIP is given to all classes from Prep to Gr. 7 at least seven times a year.
8. Class supervised Research

- It is a scheduled program of activity particularly in Science and Social Studies. It refers to the class periods allotted to these subdects where the students are brought to the EMC to do the research for a particular topic.
9. Grade Level newspaper

- Each grade level is given a subscription to a newspaper of their choice. It is a service rendered to ensure that the faculty is updated daily on current events locally and internationally.
10 Mags-on-Wheels

- Selected professional and general interest dournals are routed in the different grade levels and services areas. The services are given to maximize the different subscriptions for professional and personal growth of the school community.
11. Photocopying Services

- A self-service photocopying machine is available for the faculty to Xerox materials needed. Students may also request photocopying of library materials. A corresponding amount is charged.
12. Video and Sound Production

- Simple production for class instruction, program and school wide presentation is put together in the Audio-Visual area.
13. Multi-media Services

- Different non-print media-materials are acquired. Teachers are encouraged to maximize use of their materials. The procedures for reservation and usage are teacher-friendly.

ABSTRACTION

            An EMC is a friendly designed for the housing and utilization of all educational media within the school. It s a basic requirement for a school to render quality service. It is not independent of the school. Rather, like any part of the human body, it is a unit in a school that cooperates with other units or departments that help the school fulfill its mission and realize its vision by living up to the school’s philosophy and aims. It serves a myriad of roles which are; 1) center of resources, 2) laboratory for learning, 3) agent of teaching, 4) service agency, 5) coordinating agency, 6) recreational reading center, and 7) a stepping stone to other resources of the community.

            An EMC renders various kinds of services. Its services boil down to improving the teaching-earning process by making it more interactive, collaborative, interesting and authentic.

What must an EMC have to be a functional EMC?

            The evaluation questions for a functional EMC (Lucido & Borabo, 1997) give the following elements.

   1.      The institution media services

• Is the administration committed to a media program?
• Is the program of media services administered by a media specialist through media center?
• Is the center operating at the same level as other mador institutional services of the school.

  2. Media and Instruction

• Is the faculty encouraged to use media as an integral part of instruction?
•  Are classrooms equipped and/or adapted for the best possible use of educational media?·         
• Is the media center accessible to all classrooms and lecture/conference rooms?
•  Is there educational media technology information dissemination?
•  Is there cooperation between faculty and the professional media staff in the planning, developing, and using media for instructions?
• In particular, are faculty members assisted by the media center staff in analyzing teaching needs and in designing, selecting and using educational media to meet these needs?
• Is there an adequate storage, filing and retrieval/borrowing system for instructional hardware and software/materials?
•  Is the center capable of technical operations relating in technical assistance, equipment repair and cleaning, continuous upgrading facilities?
• Is there a capability for production of graphics, audio, visual and other media materials for instruction?

   3.   Classroom facilities

•  Are classrooms designed for and provided with essential facilities for effective use of educational media/
• Specifically, are classrooms equipped for full light control, electrical outlets, appropriate ventilation and media operations space?
• Are classroom equipped with a bulletin board, chalkboard, prodection screen, map rails, etc. for instruction using media?

   4.  Media Programs

•  Are there clear-out administration policies on the media? 
• Is there an adequate source/system of funding?
• Is there appropriate hiring of media center supervisions, creating and technical personnel, consultants and clerical staff?

APPLICATION

1.  Come up with a metaphor or a simile on the following roles of an EMC. Explain your metaphor or simile in a sentence or two.
Example:
            An EMX is a resource center- an EMC is like an NFA warehouse. (It is from there that we buy our rice at a cheaper price in this period of crisis in the same way that we get our instructional materials from an EMC).
2. Use any of the bands of experience (instructional materials) EXCEPT WORDS or VERBAL SYMNBOLS in Dale’s Cone of Experience to present. Illustrate the services rendered by an EMC.

Example:

            Orientation service by role playing

• An EMC is a facility of the school system tasked to acquire, maintain, care and promote the full effective use of educational media. It houses both old and new technologies meant to make learning more efficient and effective. It facilitates and ensures the optimum use of all instructional media.
•  It organizes learning activities for students and teachers alike for them to upgrade and improve on their technology manipulative skills all for the purpose of motivating them to keep on developing their communication, analytical, integrative, creative and collaborative skills for meaningful lifelong learning.
• This is made possible only by an EMC that is adequately equipped not only material resources but most important of all by manpower resources, the media specialists and the assistants.

Postscripts – A Functional EMC Motivates and Inspires

• To have a functional EMC facilitates our job. Imagine, a technician is there to help us when we have no confidence in manipulating equipment like laptop for a PowerPoint presentation. Someone is there to help us when we need a visual material like a poster or map. 
• Usually locating am instructional material we need eats up our time. With a knowledgeable media specialists and caring assistants, we are speed.
• It has to be overemphasized that a school put the right persons in the EMC. All the technologies housed in the EMC will be laid to waste if the media specialists and the assistants are not very knowledgeable and are not committed in the operation and manipulation of educational media.