Scheduling

Media centers can operate on a “fixed” or “flexible” schedule. In a media center with flexible scheduling, classes, small groups, and individuals are scheduled for a varying time period appropriate to need. It is different from fixed scheduling in which classes are scheduled for a specified time period regardless of need.

The Georgia DOE addresses this topic in rule IFBD 160-4-4-.01. “A Georgia school library media program must include a plan for flexibly scheduled media center access for students and teachers in groups or as individuals simultaneously throughout each instructional day. Accessibility shall refer to the facility, the staff, and the resources and shall be based on instructional need. Flexible scheduling is maintained by allowing full participation of teachers and the library media specialist in collaborative planning and allowing students to come to the library media center at any time.”

A schedule that is mandated or controlled by the school administration is not flexible, it's fixed. The media program is not to be used as a means to provide planning time for teachers. The Principal should help create the appropriate climate within the school by advocating the benefits of flexible scheduling to the faculty, by ensuring appropriate staffing levels, and by providing joint planning time for classroom teachers and LMS. Collaboration is the key to setting up a quality media center instructional program so that the media program is fully integrated into the school’s instructional program. Teachers and students must be able to come to the media center for both scheduled and informal visits.

Flexible scheduling helps students learn and practice information literacy skills when they are relevant, fosters independent use of the media center, and allows greater access to the expertise of the LMS. Flexible scheduling helps teachers with greater access to the LMC, promotes a partnership with the LMS in constructing, teaching, and evaluating instructional units, and allows teachers to grasp the spontaneity of the teachable moment. Flexible scheduling gives the LMS the chance to build more effective partnerships with students, parents, teachers, and administrators, creates the time to work with individual students and small groups, and offers the opportunity to teach information literacy skills when relevant. “To meet learning needs, the programs resources and services must be available so that information problems can be resolved when they arise." __Information Power__, 1998