Overview

The mission of the Educational Media and Instructional Materials Department is to provide services and support to the school library media programs as well as instructional resources to all schools and centers.

The department’s staff of one director, three coordinators and seven support personnel assists the school library staff (a certified librarian and in some schools, a library media assistant) at all schools and centers in providing services and materials to students and teachers. In addition, the department also coordinates the procurement and distribution of textbooks and instructional resources.

Educational Media and Instructional Materials Policies

Educational Media

The mission of the school library media programs is to provide access to information and ideas that are fundamental to functioning successfully in today’s information and knowledge-based society. School library media programs provide opportunities for all members of the school community to become skilled users and creators of information in a variety of formats in preparation to become career and college ready.

Educational Media provides a number of specific services through four units:

The department’s administrators communicate with Library Media Center (LMC) staff through school visits, a listserv, e-mails, online memos, and annual motivational and organizational meetings.
In addition to the services provided by the Professional Library, the Learning Resources Center, and Instructional Media Processing, the department supports the LMC staff by offering the following:

  • professional learning opportunities on a wide range of professional topics, including current library trends and initiatives
  • coordination with IT to provide technology updates
  • training for teacher-librarians for implementation of new programs
  • training for principals in the annual teacher-librarian evaluation
  • presentations by prominent authors and experts on current library trends and issues
  • supporting compliance with state and regional accrediting agency standards
  • guidance on implementation of the DeKalb County School District’s policies and procedures: copyright, Internet acceptable use, instructional media and equipment, challenge and reconsideration and accountability for school property
  • information updates from the school district, the Georgia Department of Education, and professional organizations
  • acquisition services and fund accounting for purchases of library materials
  • support and training for Destiny Library Manager (online library catalog)
  • opening day collections for new LMCs
  • development of specifications for new LMCs
  • support for new teacher-librarians through targeted professional development classes, on-site visitations, mentoring, and implementation/evaluation of required program activities and initiatives
  • collaborative partnership for K–12 students with the DeKalb County Public Library

The Professional Library supports teachers, administrators and staff with a variety of services and resources, including the following:

  • physical collection of books, journals, and newspapers which includes teacher certification resources as well as other professional materials available to all DeKalb employees
  • 24/7 online access to an extensive collection of electronic resources including, e-books, journals and other professional documents
  • Interlibrary Loan Services (especially helpful when pursuing advanced degrees)
  • individual and group library instruction sessions for library services and electronic resources

The Learning Resources Center serves as a support to DeKalb County Pre-K through grade 12 teachers. The LRC collection contains approximately 10,000 items in various formats, including sheet music, copyright-free music and sound effects that are available through an online catalog with courier delivery to DeKalb schools, centers and sites.

Instructional Media Processing provides original cataloging and copy cataloging for school library media center (LMC) materials.

Instructional Materials

Instructional Materials provides the following services and support for all schools and centers:

  • acquisition services for textbooks and instructional materials
  • facilitation of textbook adoption
  • support for schools through Building Textbook Administrators (BTA) and Building Textbook Coordinators (BTC)
  • information updates for textbook portal
  • management of textbook rebinds, replenishment and discards

Contact Information