MHS Library Media Center app for iPhone and iPad

This app provides personal device access to Manatee High School Library Media Center’s website which houses many educational tools that are useful to its stakeholders: students, teachers, and parents.

The HOME page offers Destiny, the librarys book/website catalog. This catalog allows patrons to search for books housed in the library media center and district. The catalog also offers vetted websites narrowed to the 9-12 grade level. The Home page further offers links to the public library and its services and MHS subscription databases. The Library Media Center subscribes to Reader’s Guide Full Text Select which allows users to access thousands of full text articles by topic. The State of Florida offers the Florida Electronic Library with its many Gale databases helpful for research activities.

The Home page further promotes the Florida Teens Read contest organized by the Florida Association for Media in Education or FAME. A link is provided to FAME’s FTR page and the LMC’s contest blog which allows participating students to review each book based on personal impressions. In the end, students will help to choose Florida’s favorite teen read. This contest promotes student reading.

To support the school’s dedication to properly documented original student writings, the Home page links students to the school’s EasyBib coupon page and log in, which will help them to properly cite, save, create notecards, and drag and drop outlines for their writing projects.

The website’s toolbar (top) offers students two more resource pages, under the heading Student Tools, which include writing resources, applicable to all subject area writing, and subject specific area resources for the core subjects: math, English, science, and social studies. The Writing Resources assist students in choosing valid and reliable information as well as tutorials and tips for citing them.

The toolbar further offers additional Teacher Tools listed under the headings Lesson Resources, Primary Resources, and Digital Media. Vetted resources include The Best Annual Websites for Teaching and Learning from FAME, Library of Congress primary sources, and PBS Learning Media. These and many more resources allow teachers to take advantage of prize-winning educational e-materials accumulated to support their curriculum efforts.

Teachers and students also have access to a Teamwork link on the toolbar which takes them to collaborative projects devised between the classroom teacher and the library media specialist. These pages offer helpful links and culminating project instructions and tutorials geared toward specific lesson goals devised by the teacher. The media specialist tracks down resources as support and offers them to students with group and individual tutoring provided.

All users have access to an electronic calendar which allows them to plan their visits to the media center and collaborative projects in advance.

Students and teachers also have a page each for the Policies and Procedures of the Library Media Center. Teachers are also given information on textbooks to the extent that the library contributes to their circulation and housing.

The MHS Library Media Center Library Media Center website is a hub for all stakeholders of the school. This app provides easy access to helpful resources and tools on their devices.