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Destiny

Media Center

Ms. Miller

LIBRARY HOURS:

Monday-Friday
8:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Mrs. M. Miller - Library Media Specialist
Mrs. R. Bertrand - Library Assistant

THE *L.I.F.E. CENTER

The Pinecrest Elementary *L.I.F.E. Media Center is a beautiful facility which is welcoming not only to students, but also to faculty, parents and community members. This multi-purpose facility is the hub of our school and serves to enhance and complement the classroom curriculum. The library collection consists of over 13,000 print and non-print materials which includes books, magazines, equipment and videos/DVDs. There are 11 computers which may be used to locate books on Destiny, our online catalog, access the Education Portal and the internet or take Accelerated Reader tests. The morning closed circuit television broadcast studio is housed in the Media Center.  It is from this studio that the W.P.E.N. Crew greets our students and staff each morning, with a smile and informative news.

*Library Information for Everyone

MISSION

The mission of the L.I.F.E. Center is to provide not only quality materials, but also access to information and ideas for all users. It affords opportunities for students, faculty, and staff to appreciate literature and the cultural arts, to learn creative thinking skills; to become critical seekers of information and ideas, and to use instructional and educational technology effectively.  Our goal is to instill in our students a love of reading and the ability to locate, evaluate and use information in order to complete a task.  The acquisition of this knowledge will help our students to become life-long learners and decision makers. It is to this end that our library information skills lessons are conducted.  Some of these informational lessons include:

• Library Orientation and use of the library
• Care of books and materials
• Understanding the Dewey Decimal System
• Using the Destiny Online Catalog
• Using the Education Portal  Elementary Resources available at:  www.dadeschools.net
• Research skills and advanced searching skills
• Understanding genres and choosing books in different genres
• Identifying and reading award winning books such as Caldecott, Newbery, and Sunshine State Award books.
• Evaluating web resources
• Using the STAR and AR Program
• Science Fair research

Reading Promotions take place on a monthly basis and provide students with the opportunity to participate in numerous activities involving the printed word.

POLICIES AND PROCEDURES

The Pinecrest media center functions on a fixed/flexible schedule.

• PreK classes visit bi/weekly for story and library orientation. They do not check out books for the first semester of school. During the second semester they will be allowed to check out books which will be kept in the classrooms and returned the next visit.

• Kindergarten and first grade classes have scheduled classes weekly for introduction to literature, information skill instruction, and checkout. Students in Kindergarten and grade 1 may check out one book for a week and may be renewed for an additional week.

• Grades 2 through 5 may visit weekly with their class or students may come to the library as needed for checkout and research.  Five students at a time may come in a group.  Students in grades 2 and 3 may check out two books. This checkout is for one week and also may be renewed for an additional week. Students in grades 4 and 5 may check out three books.  These books too may be renewed depending upon the project.

• Students must return previous checkouts before they will be permitted to check out additional books. If a book is lost we would appreciate either a book replacement or the cost of the book, which will then be used to order a new one.

• Information skill classes are scheduled with individual teachers, who then collaborate with the media specialist to provide lessons covering the Information grade level objectives.  Students should come with a pencil.

HOURS

• The L.I.F.E. Center is open from 8:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. daily.  Parents are encouraged to visit the Media Center and check out books for their children. Parents may also request a library card which will enable them to check out 5 books.  The media specialist Mrs. Miller is available to assist parents when needed. Parents may come to the Media Center to learn more about any programs offered.  Please make an appointment in the library.

PROGRAMS

• STAR Reading is a short reading test which identifies the student’s approximate reading level range. This range is then used by the student to choose books in the Accelerated Reader program that are on the correct level.  Students may receive instruction on taking the STAR test.

• The Accelerated Reader (AR) program is available to all students.  This program consists of reading an identified Accelerated Reader book and then taking a short reading comprehension test on the computer.  The students are able to accumulate points and read towards a goal, which the classroom teacher sets.  The books which have tests to accompany them are identified with a blue sticker and a level number. To determine if a book is an AR book go to the AR link on the Media web page or use the Destiny Catalog. At the catalog enter the name of the book. If test is available the book description will include “Accelerated Reading” information.

• Sunshine State Award nominated books are ordered each year. These books are written by authors in our state. They are nominated because they are considered to be exceptional by parents, teachers or media specialists. The students in grades 3-5 are encouraged to read as many of the books as possible. In the spring children who have read at least three books will have the opportunity to vote for their favorite book. 

• The “Catch you Being Good” program involves school-wide citizenship, character education, and the core values. Students in grades K and 1 receive a star in the library if books are returned on the due date. Grades 2-5 may receive a star when they are spotted in the library following the library citizenship rules.  Students with 12 stars have their names announced on the morning show and students with 25 stars appear live on the show.  Students who are able to collect 50 stars receive two passes to the movies.

• W.P.E.N. Morning Show is broadcast in the studio located in the Media Center, and is under the direction of Mrs. Miller.  Students in grades 4 and 5 may indicate their desire to be a part of the crew to their teacher. The crews for the entire school year are completed in October for the whole year and the first 9 weeks of the following year. Crews consist of 9 or 10 students who are trained in the library.   Each student has the opportunity to experience each anchor position on the crew. The crews change every 7 or 8 weeks.  Fifth grade students are placed first. Students who do not fill a crew this year will be place on next year’s crew.

Welcome to the *L.I.F.E. Center. Please allow me to take you on a Library tour of many of the wonderful resources available. The following sites will be of interest to you:

www.dadeschools.net

USER NAME AND PASSWORD = miamidade

• Enter the Student Portal
• Click on Virtual Library
• The Virtual Library contains the following sites:

Destiny Online Catalog

• Scroll to Pinecrest
• Click on Pinecrest to view our Destiny Catalog
• Home-Scroll down for informative links and sites
• Click on Catalog to search for a book

• Search Award Winners
• Make a list to print
• Search for AR book by going to “Search Reading Programs”  and clicking  on Arrow, click on Accelerated Reader,

      enter your child’s level, click enter, print a list of your child’s books

Destiny Quest

• Click on Destiny Quest and then on begin your quest.
• Enter the name of book or subject in Find-click enter
• Narrow your search by using the criteria at the left
• Hover over the picture of a book to obtain record information on the book

                     
Other Online Catalogs

• Search Miami-Dade County Public Library System
• Search Sunlink  

                         Elementary Resources

• eLibrary Elementary
  With eLibrary elementary beginning researchers can use the colorful, graphical search interface to find the answers they need from more than 130 magazines, newspapers, books, transcripts, maps, images, weblinks, and audio/video titles, all selected as appropriate for elementary school studies.
• Grolier Online
  Rich multimedia databases, including Encyclopedia Americana, Grolier Multimedia, New Book of Knowledge, America the Beautiful, The New Book of Popular Science, Nueva Enciclopedia Cumbre en Linea. All provide quick access to encyclopedia articles, web links, and full-text periodical articles all with a single search.
• InfoTrac-Kids Edition
  Formerly PrimaryTOM, this periodical database is designed for elementary school students, with easy access to full-text magazines, newspapers and reference books for information on current events, the arts, science, popular culture, health, people, government, history, sports and more
• .NewsBank Connections for Kids (Elementary
• One Place
  One Place provides a federated search which makes using our district-licensed online databases even more powerful than ever before.  Now you can visit just one place and enter your search terms for selected databases or all databases.
• TumbleBooks
  TumbleBookLibrary is an online collection of animated, talking picture books. The 100 book collection includes books in Spanish, reading comprehension quizzes and teacher resources. Entire website can also be viewed in Spanish.
• WorldBook Online Reference Center (All levels-One year trial)
  Includes all of the articles from the venerable World Book Encyclopedia, our Spanish Language Encyclopedia, correlations to Florida teaching standards, and an extensive interactive dictionary and atlas. Also included is World Book Kids, designed for primary scholars with thousands of easy-to-read articles, a wealth of hands-on activities to engage different types of learners, and teacher resources. Additionally, the World Book Research Libraries offers a broad collection of historically important documents as well as e-book versions of classic literature.

• Media Center Staff
• Online Research   Online Research

• Destiny Online Catalog Destiny

• Search Engines

Google www.google.com
Dogpile www.dogpile.com
Ask www.ask.com