The mission of the Anchorage School District is to educate students for success in life. School librarians work in a collaborative manner with all educators and parents to promote student achievement through library media programming. Access to information and resource sharing are two basic elements in promoting library services in the school program.

To accomplish this the district established a centralized library services and automation department called Library Resources. Library Resources facilitates the development of the library index for the entire system. New materials added to the district are indexed for online retrieval using a bibliographic utility called OCLC (Online Catalog Library Center) and national standards in cataloging and classification are maintained.

Configuration of the new library technology includes a web-accessible online system with Z39.50 compliance and was installed in January 2000. The library index includes 1.2 million items and can be assessed as a system index or by school indexes. Bibliographic support and maintenance of the online public access catalog (OPAC) is centered at Library Resources. Administrative system reports are made at Library Resources.

Material in the Anchorage School District library index includes: books, multimedia such as videos, slides, kits, sound recordings, musical scores, serials, computer software, and access to information on the Internet. A portion of the collection includes information of materials not yet automated.

Staff development and training are provided in many library services: automation, circulation, interlibrary loans, collection development, library programming, children's literature, reference materials, remote and direct library automation services, and numerous curriculum and educational issues. Library seminars are offered to librarians, library assistants, curriculum specialists, educators, principals, parents, and members of the community.

Library Resources personnel provide technical bulletins on all aspects of the library automation program. The department serves as the center for solving library automation problems and for providing solutions in the library technology software applications and trouble shoot with the hardware used.

The department maintains a library web page on library services. It also assists in opening day library collections for new schools. It also facilitates preview activity for new library materials for interested educators. Interlibrary loan requests for out-of-the district transactions are also handled by the department.

Click on the logo to return to Library Resources Home Page