The bell rings. The school day is over but you still have a lot to do. You need to stop in guidance to get SAT information, talk to one of your teachers, and do research on a Media Center computer since you don’t have one. By the time you get to the Media Center, there is just not enough time for you to finish any research by the 3:00 closing. The Media Center is inaccessible for most students due to time constraints and doesn’t get the use it should or the use it could get if it were open longer.

Presently on a day where there are no canceled classes and you don’t want to skip your lunch for research, students can only use the Media Center for a short time before school starts and at most an hour after school ends. These time limitations greatly inhibit students’ access to computers and research materials. Some students at the high school don’t have computers at home and the Media Center is their only resource for the Internet and for typing. For the students who do have computers most do not have the search databases and the vast amounts of books contained in the Media Center. Its hour should be extended to later in the evening on a few days for example Tuesdays and Thursdays the Media Center could be open after school until five o’clock. With two full-time library personnel and another part time librarian there should be some way to switch each staff members’ hours around so that at least a few days out of the week it would have longer hours and students would get to use the Media Center’s full potential as a learning environment. If one Media Center staff member came in later in the day and then worked later they would still be working the same amount of time while also greatly benefiting the student body.

During the school day the Media Center is used fairly often, but with the supervision of the teacher whose class is using it. This eliminates the need for multiple staff members during the day and would allow for a staff member to keep the Media Center open longer. If this were to occur it would be used much more and students would still be able to attend after school meetings and go to sports practices without missing the hour of research time.

The Wilbraham Public Library (WPL) is not an ideal solution for students either. First of all they would need to provide transportation to and from the WPL while they can stay after to use the Media Center. Secondly there aren’t enough computers for students to access or the search databases that the Media Center has. The WPL only has four word processing computers, and six for Internet access. There are often computer classes at the WPL that take up the computers as well as the computers that are also used as card catalogs.

Although the WPL has excellent research materials they don’t have the computer resources of the Media Center such as the sheer number of usable computers and search databases. The search databases the WPL currently have may be removed also due to state budget cuts in the upcoming year when public libraries will be placed under the Department of Education. If the Media Center’s hours were altered it would be extremely beneficial for students as the WPL doesn’t meet most students needs, especially since the Media Center is in the school and no transportation is required to get there.

Another problematic situation concerning the Media Center is the canceled class access to it. Unless you can get a teacher to write you a pass or you have a Renaissance Card you can’t go to the library and you are stuck doing nothing in a canceled class while you could be studying or doing assignments in the library. It is often difficult for students to obtain passes from teachers to go to the library especially if their cancelled class is the first class of the day and they didn’t know about it. Those students who don’t hold a Renaissance Card but who want to bring up their grades by doing extra work in the library are not permitted to do so because they don’t have a card to begin with. It’s a rather hypocritical situation. The students who need to do extra work to bring up their grades can’t while the students who already get good grades can. Studying and researching is being inhibited for students who don’t get perfect grades. This system needs some attention.

College libraries are open all day long and most of the night and can be accessed at any time providing research time for students with all different schedules. The Media Center at the high school right now is not getting enough use as it is difficult for students to use it in only one hour a day with their schedules. There are three staff members working in the library that could somehow rearrange their schedule so that the library could remain open much longer than one hour after school. It’s almost a waste to even have a Media Center when so many students don’t get to access all its resources.