Library system seeks link with Sisters schools

At least one Sisters school is likely to participate in a new program intended to make the Deschutes Public Library System (DPLS) more accessible to students. One purpose is to improve students’ research skills.

DPLS Director Michael Gaston is making the rounds of Deschutes County school boards to explain the project. He spoke briefly to the Sisters School Board at its March 7 meeting.

Three of the 28 schools in the county will be selected for the first year, 2005-06.

Schools must apply for the program and must meet certain basic criteria to be eligible for selection. Sisters Superintendent Ted Thonstad said last week he thought both the district’s high school and its middle school might apply.

The cost for participating schools should be minimal. The library system would install two computers in each school, one a reference workstation for research and the other a circulation station. The system will also train school media center managers in the use of theequipment.

Students or school staff members could use the reference computer to search the DPLS collection of 150,000 titles “using the online catalog.” Materials they request would be forwarded to their school within a day via the library system’s courierservice.

“The program is designed to build upon the existing school media centers,” Gaston says in a general letter to school officials. “A minimum level of school funding for the media center will be required as a condition of eligibility, including at least part-time paid staffing and a basic level of investment in the local school library collection.”

The library system is describing the project as an experiment. It will be evaluated after the first year and expanded if it works well. The application deadline for the first year is April 15.

Gaston told The Nugget last week that the program has been put together primarily by his Youth Services staff. He said one of its purposes is to encourage schools to invest more in their own media centers.

“I’m its (the program’s) biggest supporter,” he declared.

Sisters Middle School Principal Lora Nordquist said last week she’s “99 percent certain” that her school will apply to participate the first year. She sees one of the program’s chief advantages as being “some good support services from Deschutes Public Library about using research materials.”

“The Internet has been the bane of research in a lot of ways,” she said, “because without really careful teaching there’s too much information. It’s so unfiltered and kids really need help.

“And they tend to reject books…as good sources of information. So this is one of the things that might be really valuable about (the DPLS program) — to help us help kids develop better research skills and understand the range of materials that could be helpful to them in doing research.”