The new multi-purpose media room in the newly renovated library. Photos by Amanda Oyola.
By Amanda Oyola
While the library has been under construction for some time, the changes have been great. Walking past the folder paper artwork by one of Mr. Schmitz’s art classes and through the glass doors of the school library, the new media center is a completely new and renovated space. It is unrecognizable now, when compared to a year ago.
The most obvious changes are the new conference rooms, but looking around, there are many, many more additions and improvements. There is new carpeting, a new and sleek librarian desk (complete with depressible book return), and new seating areas with comfortable gray seating, and even card catalog cabinets from the 1950’s which have been repurposed as tables.
Throughout the library, there’s new shelving with a fresh assortment of books still being organized, a magazine display rack that stores previous issues of magazines while also separately displaying the current issues, and a total of eight Macintosh computers available for student use.
There are many smaller multi-purpose rooms, on is a television production area, an office for computer technicians, and other rooms for training purposes. There are even some larger rooms, big enough to teach classes, and they are equipped with a smart board, swivel chairs that double as desks, automatic lights and storage cabinets.
Folded paper art greets visitors to the new library media center.
The complete reimagining of the library, complete with new technology and furniture has not been easy. In addition to being the librarian, Mrs. McGinnis has also taken over as a French teacher since Mrs. Nesser retired last year. Before school and for the first four periods of the day, she attends to the library, and for the remainder of the day she has classes, all of which are taught in the library itself.
McGinnis’s full schedule has resulted in the postponement of the grand opening. Also complicating the grand reopening of the library was the pipe leak that left some newly renovated areas damaged.
“The library also lost quite a few books as a result of pipe damage back in February 2013,” Ms. McGinnis said.
Just because there is not a grand reopening, does not mean that the new library media center is not open for business. It certainly is. The before and after school library program is being staffed by Mrs. Janoowalla and Mrs. Hamade. Furthermore, there are currently two students trained as library aids. Dayanira Aguilar and Ariadni Aguilar both help with tasks including (but definitely not limited to) shelving and organizing before school, updating homeroom information in the library system, and preparing new books for checkout with barcodes and spine labels.
The library is open for an hour before and after school, when students are free to bring their IDs to take out books and use the new computers. Due to the classes going on in the library throughout the course of the day, students are asked not to come during their lunch periods as it can be distracting to the classes. The media center, at the back of the media center, is open every day for id’s before homeroom begins.
All of the work and time put into PHS’ new library media center renovations have turned out amazing, and the future of our library truly looks promising. So, take advantage of this great new space to study and learn. The new Media Center will be a great tool to making PHS number one.
