The Riverside Campus - The Media Center
Posted on Jul 20, 2009
Riverside Headmaster H. Palmer Bell believes, “At the heart of every outstanding educational institution lies an outstanding library. The new state-of-the-art library and media center at RPDS will not only give our students the tools they need to excel, but it will also become a focal point of pride for all of us, faculty, staff and parents alike.”
More space for the RPDS Media Center is a physical impossibility, as the library is constrained within the same four walls. However, architects Becky Mintz and Julianne Overby’s keen eyes saw that the existing space could be much better utilized. The library and adjacent computer lab will essentially be stripped to the walls as renovations take place over the summer.
Books will continue to line the walls of the library, but they will also be organized into shelf stacks allowing for hundreds of new volumes to be added to the 17,000+ currently in the library. The reading area will be surrounded by movable shelves so that the area can be expanded to accommodate visiting authors and meetings. The office and work areas will be relocated to one end of the space, creating more room for staff and computer workstations, which will become full-functioning with internet access.
Becky Cox, Media Center specialist, lights up when she talks about the new library, but she’s also found that, like all house cleaning, she’s had to rid the space of a lot of “stuff” she’s collected over the years. “I’ve gathered nineteen boxes of books that have never been checked out,” she laments. “But I can’t wait until the children come back in the fall and see all of the changes.”
The other change returning students will see is in the computer lab. Like the library, the computer lab will undergo significant remodeling. Not only will the space be rearranged to allow for more computer workstations and more efficient teacher workspace, but it will also now accommodate SmartBoard technology and include construction of a fully-functioning broadcast center.
Technology Instructor, Tamara Bader, has been trying to organize a multi-media program for some time now. “The new broadcast room will give us the tools necessary for students to produce podcasts for the student body and also on the Web,” she elaborates. “We hope to begin production of a daily in-class newscast of current events and school happenings.”
“Students will gain an awareness of news events and they will perform all aspects of production,” she continues. “They will learn presentation skills, and scripting, which requires them to tell a story quickly and clearly. And, of course, there’s the coordination skills required in organizing the entire broadcast effort.”
Construction of the Library/Media Center was completed the end of August, just in time for the opening of the 2009-2010 school year.
