ROLES AND FUNCTION OF AN EDUCATIONAL MEDIA CENTER

“We have said that the best ideas in the world are to be found in a modern library. But the modern educational media center must include excellence in varied media – not merely in printed materials”

- Edgar Dale




An educational media center is a facility designed for the housing and utilization of all educational media within the school. It is a basic requirement for school to render quality service. It is not independent of the school. Rather, like any part of the human body, it is the unit in the school that cooperates with other unit of departments that help the school fulfill its mission and realize its vision by living up to the school's philosophy and aims. It serves a myriad roles and functions and services such as:


EMC SERVICES

• —ORIENTATION

All teacher are given an orientation on the Educational Media Center. The students are also given an orientation on their first Media Instructional Program class.

• —SELECTION OF PRINT & NON-PRINT MATERIALS

The librarians continually select and acquire print and non-print material that suits the needs, interest, and special abilities of the students and teachers.

• —ORGANIZATION OF PRINT AND NON-PRINT MATERIALS

A technical librarian organizes all the purchased print and non-print materials for easy retrieval.

• —CIRCULATION OF PRINT & NON-PRINT MATERIALS

The Educational Media Center lends out various types of materials to students and teachers.

• —REFERENCE

The EMC attends to request such a bibliographic information from the card catalog, search through books, periodicals, pamphlets, documents and non-print materials.

• —BIBLIOGRAPHIC SERVICE

There are listings of materials and periodical articles to publicize the new materials and periodical articles in in the EMC.

• —MEDIA INSTRUCTION PROGRAM

The MIP aims to teach students to be skill full and discriminating users of print and non-print media.

• —CLASS SUPERVISED RESEARCH

It is a schedule program of activity particularly in Science and Social Studies. It refers to da class periods alloted to these subjects wer da students r brought to da EMC to do research for a particular topic.

• —GRADE LEVEL NEWSPAPER

Each grade level is given a subscription to a newspaper of their choice. It is a service rendered to ensure that the faculty is updated daily on current events locally and internationally.

• —MAGS-ON-WHEELS

Selected professional and general interest journals are routed in da different grade levels & service areas. The service is given to maximize the different subscriptions for professional and personal growth of the school community.

• —PHOTOCOPYING SERVICE

A self- service photocopying machine is available foe the faculty to Zerox material needed. Students may also request photocopying of library materials.

• —VIDEO & SOUND PRODUCTION

Simple production for class instruction, program and school wide presentations are put together in the audio-Visual area.

• —MULTI-MEDIA SERVICES

Different non-print media- materials are acquired. Teachers are encouraged to maximize use of their materials. The procedures for reservation and usage is teacher-friendly.

Educational Media Center functions as a visual instrument as well as a basic requirement for quality education by enriching all parts of the school's educational process. It reflects and supports the philosophy of the school. It involve in the teaching and learning process. It is a source center .It is a learning laboratory. It is a teaching agency. It is a service agency. It is a coordinating agency. It is a center of recreational, viewing, and listening and it is a stepping stone to other community resource centers.

An EMC is a facility designed for housing and utilization of all educational media w/in a school. It is a basic requirement for a school to render quality service. It is not independent of the school. Rather, like any part of the human body, it is a unit in the school that cooperates with other units or departments that help the school fulfill its mission and realize its vision by living up to the school’s philosophy and aims.

It serves a myriad roles, among which are:

• 1.Center of resources
• 2.Laboratory for learning
• 3.Agent of teaching
• 4.Service agency
• 5.Coordinating agency
• 6.Recreational reading center
• 7.A stepping stone to other resources of the community

1. The Institutional media service
The evaluation question for a functional EMC (Lucido & Borabo, 1997) give the following elements

2. Media and Instruction
3. Classroom Facilities
4. Media Program