the national medal for Museum and Library Services is the nation's highest
honor for libraries and museums that are serving their communities in exceptional
ways Park View library media center Specialists Jennifer fiser and Candace
main rush and Community member Pablo Rivera traveled to Washington from
Sterling Virginia to receive the national medal and spoke to imls about
how the library impacts the community well at the Parkview uh Library Media
Center we are working on reimaging the library into a welcoming Gathering Place
For Students faculty and staff uh who can come together in a atmosphere that
Fosters academic Synergy uh Sparks creative and critical thinking and
inspires creativity the community that we serve is a very diverse Community
it's diverse culturally and it's also diverse socioeconomically
the Parky library media center is open every school day from 7:45 until at
least 5:00 at night we have school uh hours before school and we always have
students waiting at the door the reason that we're open extended hours is
because there is a need in our community for students to have a safe place to
come maybe early in the morning when their parents have already left for work
um they need to have space to finish their projects they need to have
computer access ESS and they seek research assistance and assistance
finding books to read um some students go in there to finish work to finish
projects have their meetings um or just to look up some information so usually
before and after school is used more dedicated towards educational stuff but
it's also used for some recreational stuff there are board games there are
magazines we have um art supplies we have glue sticks uh we have scissors um
you know we just have everything that you might be looking for now during the
day um there are classes that go in and sometimes our Librarians give little um
workshops on how to use um programs on the internet and programs that are in
the computers um some classes go in to pick up books for their use in our
library I think we have a philosophy that is twofold I'd say we really
concentrate on service and teaching and so at Park viw that uh is seen in
the way that we try to seek out whatever needs that our Parkview Community might
have whether that's a teacher need and a new tool that they would like to teach
their students and we can help them with that or maybe it's a student need where
they uh do not have a printer and an ink at home and they come in in the morning
to print out that paper that's due that day um the other part of our philosophy
is teaching we are uniquely placed in a school library to bring the teaching
aspect of all Librarians into our practice we can find ourselves working
one-on-one with a student at a computer teaching them how to use software to
site their resources for example um but we also have the opportunity to teach
whole classes we are a very Lively Library uh we have lots of activity lots
of interaction we know that students learn through social interaction and so
we Foster that social interaction we don't shush them which is not to say
there aren't quiet areas of the library where students can go if they need quiet
space to study uh but we just have a lot of uh student groups coming in to do
projects students doing their individual projects teachers meeting with students
uh during the day and before and after school we have two programs that we have
developed that are morning concert series and it started with guitars on
the go uh which consists of guitars percussion voice sometimes keyboards and
it was so popular the first year that we did it that we branched out and decided
to have two Series so now every Thursday morning in November before school we
have Multicultural Ensemble is called world view world view is the guitar
Ensemble made up of Parkview students and it's often joined by other faculty
members who who join in and jam with drums or guitars or their own instrument
struments and it's just become very popular to uh have these concerts in the
morning when students arrive off the buses they see what's going on they hear
the music out in the halls and they start gathering in groups and sometimes
they start dancing and it's just been a really wonderful program to have at
Parkview Library I think that the students know that they can come to us
for things big and small um and things traditional and not traditional if they
know that they can come to a librarian to help find a book
but I think at Park View they know they can come to a librarian to help
proofread their paper if if they need that type of adult support so we're
there for whatever they might need when you're looking for a space where it's
welcoming where you feel at home you really find it at the library as soon as
you walk in they'll greet you not not just by a handshake or just by a simple
hay just with the genuine smile and you know it's that warm smile that lets you
feel at home so so um I mean that that feeling you it's it's definitely a
unique feeling that you get when you go there