School Library: William Fleming High School Library Media Center

For my school library visit, I decided to visit the library media center for a high school here in Roanoke City, William Fleming High School. I spent a short time working in this library as a library assistant during the 2020-2021 school year.

Digital Access

https://fleming.rcps.info/teacher_pages/library

Overall the website is fairly easy to navigate. Basic information such as the names of staff members, operating hours of the library, access to the online card catalog, and library rules are displayed on the homepage along with an assortment of links. There are links to Britannica Image Quest as well as Britannica School. There is a link for new materials, though after clicking on it you’ll find that that list hasn’t been updated since 2018. There are links for class research projects as well as a list of “favorite” links and that list is an assortment of resources from the Library of Congress Digital Collections to Free DMV Practice Tests.

It’s pretty obvious to me from this website that this library serves school students, between the hours that this library is open, the links to the RCPS card catalog, and the rules of the library posted on the website. 

As far as staff goes, there are names listed on the front page, there are four people listed but there are no position descriptions available. I know from working there last year what positions these are, two are the librarians and two are IT resource teachers. Outside of that, there is no information that would lead an outsider to know who is who. There is a phone number and a fax number listed at the bottom of the page but those are for the school and not the library specifically. There is a page somewhere on the school district’s website that has a list of contact numbers for different departments but I only know that because I stumbled upon it last year. If someone wanted to get the email address for the staff they would have to find a staff email/contact list and from first glance that’s not easy to find.

There is a link for the school library catalog, there is also a link to a school archives page. This page has links to the original school fight song, previous alumni pages, previous logos, as well as a list of yearbooks that the school has on file there in the library, there is no digital access. Through the Follett Destiny link on the website, you’re taken to a list of the schools in the system and after clicking on the link for William Fleming there is a list of sources for school research and assignments. There is a link for Audio and eBooks as well as links for Video Learning Online. The access appears to be available to the public for some things. 

As far as accessibility, there is a “Language” drop-down at the top of the school website that offers translation for ten different languages in addition to English. I could not find any other kind of support beyond translation. Audio support is not obvious, nor is support for visual impairment. Overall the website is cohesive to the rest of the school’s website, it’s plain and simple to navigate, for the most part, it’s informational and as inviting as it can be given the rest of the school’s pages. There is a Facebook page for the school but the library doesn’t have social media.

Location

The school library is located inside the school building on the second floor, located behind the windows seen in this picture of the front of the school building. The building itself is definitely large and possibly intimidating to some but its modern architecture is inviting, especially with all of the windows allowing natural light to pour in. As far as schools go it’s one of the more inviting ones that I’ve been in but I tend to be more drawn to buildings with more natural light so I’m a little biased. 

Outside of the building, there is a large parking lot with many trees. There isn’t a lot of outdoor seating or cozy spots but students can be seated on the red brick squares that house a tree as seen in this rendering above. There is a public transit bus stop at the edge of the parking lot, just off the school grounds, and a large apartment complex with public housing across the street.

Inside the library, there is a good amount of open space. There are two conference rooms that are open and one that is used for one of the technology teachers who work primarily on laptops. There are beautiful big windows which are located on the other side of the reading areas as noted in the floor plan above (available on the websites). These reading areas consist of couches and chairs that look comfortable enough for a break while working on a project. There is a computer bar with laptops available for student and staff use in addition to a computer lab which is primarily used for testing. 

“As with public libraries, the school library has already evolved from primarily providing books on shelves to providing a wealth of materials in new formats and has shifted emphasis from physical access to access on the internet” (Rubin & Rubin, 2020, p. 124) and the collection at William Fleming High School seems to follow suit. As far as collection access and limitations, most of the collection is accessible, especially the print collection and the fairly extensive magazine and journal collection. In the media storage room, there are DVDs, media players, and the yearbook collection. For the most part, those items are only available to teachers and staff, and access requires staff assistance. There is a pretty healthy dictionary collection in this library as seen on rolling carts with languages varying from English to Spanish/Spanish to English, Pashto, French, Dari, Korean, Vietnamese, Hindi, Cantonese, and several others.

Overall, the space is fairly accessible. The circulation desk has multiple heights to it, accessible by standing and by sitting levels. The space is clearly designed for teenagers and adults, the furniture is sized for adults (and the space lacks any bright colors) and the shelves are as well.

Overall the space is pretty open and very inviting thanks to all of the natural light. The school was updated in 2010 so the facilities are newer in comparison to many schools. 

Services and Intellectual Access

There aren’t really any special services or programs observable in the space. There are circulation stations at the end of 7 of the shelves that students can use to search for what they’re looking for instead of waiting for the librarian at the desk, so the catalog is very accessible. The signage is minimal within the space. The collection is labeled at the end of the shelves and there are “TESTING DO NOT ENTER” signs posted on the door to the computer lab. 

The library is organized by the Dewey Decimal system for nonfiction and alphabetized by author’s last name in terms of fiction and there is no genre identifying information or separation. There is a New Books display on the wall as you walk in the doors. I would say that students and staff at the school are welcomed in this space, students need to have a pass to enter the library as noted on the website and that pass must be signed by their classroom teacher for the time they’re in the space. The librarian does seem to be bothered by the noise level getting up and that may deter students from coming into the space but other than that it seems like the target audience is welcome.

People: Patrons and Staff

It’s clear that this library serves students, more specifically older/high school-aged students. The collection is mostly put together for a young adult audience. From the dictionary collection, you can discern that this school serves students from around the world, not just English-speaking students. You can also discern that from the conversations you hear between students in the library and in the hallway. 

Conversation at the desk between students and the library staff is mostly centered around laptops and technology. Many students come in during the morning to either pick up a laptop or switch their broken laptop for another one. There is a student working on their homework for another class at one of the tables and there is a small group of students making up an SOL test in the computer lab. 

The staff for this library is 100% White and the librarians are older adults while the technology resource teachers are two middle-aged adults. The primary language for these staff members is English so I can see students who speak English as their second or even third language being uncomfortable interacting with staff, especially if they are explaining an issue they’re having with their laptop due to a language barrier.

Collections

The collection is primarily made up of Fiction, Non-Fiction, Reference, Magazines, and Journals. There are laptops available for student and staff use. Magazines and Journals are only for in-house use, they’re not available for checkouts. As far as special collections that are available there isn’t any evidence. The library is heavily used for testing and as a space for students who have online classes or are in governor’s school to use the space to work on assignments for class. Overall the collection seems tailored to support patrons who are able to serve themselves and who can also visually see and physically reach for items, though the librarians seem happy to help if a student does require assistance. The collection also seems tailored to support primarily English-speaking students with little to offer in terms of diversity, and while there are some books that center Black teenagers you can tell that the collection centers primarily White stories.

Other

According to the school district’s website, the mission of the RCPS Library Media Centers is to build a foundation and support learning, both teacher and student-led, and provide access to high-quality information and resources (RCPS, 2022). The extensive non-fiction collection and the reference section are evidence of the library supporting the mission, though it looks like the collection could use some updating. From working for a brief amount of time I know that funds for purchasing the library collection have been lowered over the last few years but in order to truly support the mission of providing students with access to high-quality resources the funding needs to reflect that. 

I would say the main thing that surprised and also disappointed me was the lack of updating with the collection. The new book display had books from 2017-2018 on display for new, and while there was a publishing delay in 2020-2021, there are still plenty of new and relevant books for young adults available that should be in circulation! 

Overall throughout this visit, I felt like I was in a high school library. There were students working on projects for class or taking tests and the diversity in the room reflected the diversity of the student body right down to being able to hear conversations in different languages. I suppose as far as what I might want to know more about for this library I would want to know how the funding for collections is decided upon and kept up with year to year.

References

Rife + Wood Architects. (n.d.). William Fleming High School. http://rifewood.com/project/william-fleming-high-school/

Roanoke City Public Schools. (2022). Mission, Goals, and Objectives. https://www.rcps.info/cms/one.aspx?portalId=468655&pageId=603498 

Roanoke City Public Schools – William Fleming High School. (2022). Fleming Library Layout. https://fleming.rcps.info/teacher_pages/library/fleming_library_layout

Roanoke City Public Schools – William Fleming High School. (2022). Library. https://fleming.rcps.info/cms/One.aspx?portalId=471903&pageId=3571890

Rubin, R. E. and Rubin, R. G. (2020). Foundations of library and information science (5th ed.). ALA Neal-Schuman.