Hillgrove High School Media Center Needs Assessment

Elias Barber
University of West Georgia
MEDT 7490: Visual Media Literacy
Dr. Sungwoong Lee
Jun 25, 2023
 Assignment 4: Needs Assessment for School Library
Hillgrove High School

This document reviews the Media Center resources available to the learning and teaching
population at Hillgrove High School. It will also take a hard look at the needs and deficiencies in
the field of visual literacy at the high school located in Cobb County, Georgia.

Description of the Hillgrove High School Media Center

Hillgrove High School is a traditional 9-12 school established in 2005 with a robust media
center. The Media Center is open to all students and serves as a library, computer lab, project
room, copy center, and social area. Students are permitted freely in the media center before
school and during lunch with a pass. With the exception of students in a work-based learning
program and seniors who have enough credits to skip a period, all students attend the school in
person throughout the day. The media center has 42 Dell desktops and 5 hardwired laptops that
remain in place. These computers are connected to the school internet, which is policed by a
firewall, and have access to word processors and a digital library with multiple academic
databases. The school system pays for access to these various databases and also pays for
students to have Office 365 accounts so that they can access their documents anywhere. The
media center also contains a 50-inch portable screen that teachers can use for class (rendered
somewhat redundant by the installation of similar screens in each classroom) or for small groups
in various breakout rooms. The media specialists routinely offer to teach any class how to use the
databases or how to use the current citation software. Teachers are able to check out various
technology for students, including cameras and portable drives. A green screen is set up in a side
room for recording video. There are various poster-making, die-cut, and laminating tools
available for projects. For the 2023-2024 school year, the media center will be staffed by one
certified media specialist and two parapros.

Reflection of Resources and Services of Media Centers

The Hillgrove High School Media Center has ample opportunities for visual literacy. The
former head of the media center has retired as of May 2023, and her position still needs to be
replaced. Instead, her former associate media specialist has now taken over the role and will be
performing all of the responsibilities of both positions. Even with this deficiency, the new head
of the media center is highly trained in all aspects of the technology offered by the Hillgrove
media center, and is always willing to assist and train students and teachers. She advertises this
help regularly through email blasts, and even by just talking to teachers individually. Students
have the opportunity to creat nearly any visual project through the media center, be it digital or in
person. A student needed to conduct research has the ability to do it completely independently or
with the assistance of a media specialist. Many clubs and organizations use the media center to
create material for their groups, and they are offered any help they desire. All computers are
maintained by an on-site technician, who handles hardware and software issues for the entire
school.

My school district resources

Cobb County Schools provides every student with a basic Dell laptop. These laptops are
sufficient for web browsing and web-based projects. They are not equipped to handle any heavy
software on the computer’s hard drive. Network access is a must for full functionality. Because
of this, CCSD partners with Comcast to provide a low-cost internet connection to students with
financial hardships. The school pays Microsoft for Office 365 for all students, which gives them
access to a wide range of web-based software used in schools. In addition, they also pay for
students to use Adobe Spark, a video-making software, and Flip, a personal video discussion
board.

State of Georgia Resources

The State of Georgia Department of Education provides classroom teachers and learners with
several resources. They train media specialists and keep available resources consistent across the
state. In addition to the services mentioned above, the DOE also provides training to help
students understand information and media literacy. This is all done in conjunction with the
Georgia Library System and its Public Information Network for Electronic Services (PINES).
The state maintains the GALILEO database, which provides access to academic journals, peer-
reviewed sources, an many other sources that are not freely available on the web. The libraries
themselves house free computers with internet access, which a student could use for various
educational purposes.
National Resources
The American Association of School Libarians is a national organization that provides resources
to individual school libraries, and helps keep them consistent throughout the nation. The AASL
provides curriculum to school media specialists, and trains them to meet national standards. This
is vital to ensuring that school libraries across the country are providing adequate resources to
their students. In order to support these librarians, the AASL hosts plenty of professional
development and conferences in order to keep them up to date on the current developments in
media and media literacy.

The Hillgrove High School Needs for the Media Center

Based on the responses of the interviewees, Hillgrove actually has quite a robust media center.
Frey and Fisher (2008) make many arguments on the benefits of visual learning and the use of
images. Hillgrove High School’s media center has all of the available resources to satisfy those
needs. Staff at Hillgrove felt as though they had good access to the media center, and loved all of
the options that were offered. They felt as though the specialists (now specialist) were extremely
accessible and willing to assist in any way they could.
An interview with the now-retired specialist revealed that the deficiencies might not lie in
the media center but rather with the teachers themselves. She felt as though very few people took
full advantage of everything the media center had to offer. When asked about this, the
interviewed teachers admitted that they really only used the media center for research projects
and word processing and did not even really fully know what else the media center offered. With
the loss of a media specialist position, it is likely that teachers will have less access to the media
center, as one specialist cannot do the job of two people adequately.
The biggest need gleaned from the interviews is that there needs to be more cohesion
between teachers and the media center. Most of the media center’s offerings are only
communicated briefly at the beginning of the school year and through emails that many teachers
delete without reading. Were teachers fully aware of the offerings of the media center, they
would be far more likely to use them, and students could experience far more visual media
engagement than they do now. In order to accomplish this, administrators will need to actually
set up and enforce a program in which teachers use the media center for various purposes.
Teachers in Cobb County are already required to use certain kinds of assessments for data, so it
would not be a stretch to enforce that teachers use a visual media component through the library
for all of their classes.
Interviewee List
Director: Ms. Cindy Ford Email: Cindy.ford@cobbk12.org
Teacher 1: Dr. Emily Ellwood Email: Emily.Ellwood@cobbk12.org
Teacher 2: Mr. Adam Keith Email: Adam.Keith@cobbk12.org

References
American Association of School Libraries. (2022). National School Library Standards.
https://standards.aasl.org/
Cobb County School District. (2023) Technology Services.
https://www.cobbk12.org/page/5890/technology-services
Frey, N., & Fisher, D. (Eds.). (2008). Teaching visual literacy: Using comic books,
graphic novels, anime, cartoons, and more to develop comprehension and
thinking skills. Corwin Press.
Georgia Department of Education. (2023). Library media services.
https://www.gadoe.org/Curriculum-Instruction-and-Assessment/Curriculum-and-
Instruction/Pages/Library-Media-Services.aspx
Georgia Public Library Service. (2023). PINES. https://www.gapines.org/eg/opac/home