The mission of the McKean Elementary Library is to promote information literacy within the school, the community and to create an atmosphere of life-long learning.
Library classes are taught by the Librarian, Mrs. Melissa Bean. Mrs. Bean completed a Bachelors of Education, Library Science, K-12 from Clarion University. She is currently one of two elementary librarians serving the General McLane School District. Library lessons include learning how to use the library, such as instruction on the Dewey Decimal System or using the online catalog; locating, using, and evaluating information in books, the AR program, the Internet, and reference tools; types of literature; and literature appreciation.
McKean Elementary Library originally opened in 1958. In 1999 the library was updated and has become a state of the art library located in the center of the school. One major attraction of the library is the “reading well” which was constructed as part of the original library and kept intact during the most recent renovations. The library currently has about 18,000 volumes in the collection as well as several magazine subscriptions. Included in its collection are also videos/DVD’s, CD-Roms and education journals for teacher and classroom use. Monthly circulation averages about 1,200 items. There are eight computer workstations available for searching McKean Elementary’s online card catalog (Destiny), researching on the Internet or taking an AR practice quiz. Available for use as research tools on the Internet are POWER Library and a host of other data bases. Students average about 2,500 POWER Library searches per month.
The library houses two mobile computer labs as well as the eight Macs for student use. The mobile labs are equipped with 10 and 20 computers respectively and are available for classroom checkout. Classes use the bank of computers for Internet research as well as word processing and AR work. Additionally the library has a listening center for student use, with a variety of audio materials available to learn and enjoy.
Additional infomation and links are listed below.