Learning resource center


A learning resource centre is a facility within a school, staffed by a specialist, containing several information sources.
Purpose
Information and communication development opportunities and information flow are the big challenges arising from a dedicated review of most educational questions, whether from theoretical frames or material :wikt:facilitate|facilitations. School libraries are then considered one of the most important resources within educational facilities. The need to develop school libraries is urgent in that, on the one hand there is a need to convey information via a wide diversity of technologies and resources, and on the other hand, there is a myriad of new teacher and student roles to support. Within this view, came the project of learning centers. The objective is to raise school libraries to an international and more technical standard. Learning Resource Centres can also be institutionalized in various institutions for teaching and learning purposes.
The purpose of a resource center is to advanced the learning experience of students and teachers in any educational sector.
Concept
A school utility driven by a qualified expert. It contains several information resources and their techniques, which the teacher directly deals to acquire searching skills of information, analyze and evaluate to build a new knowledge and experience, then develop them using several learning methods. It also provides services to, facilitate the useful for both teaching and learning.
This view encourages educational trends, ruled in mid of 1960s and 1970s, whereas these are the methods of self-learning, from programmed learning and learning for mastery and learning throughout audio media to passing earliest beginnings to employ computer in learning process. And, information technology and teaching and learning theories have added a new dimension into learning resources centers concept.
Reasons for establishing resources centers
Learning resources center's general aim is to ensure learning educational suitable environment that allows learner benefit from any kind of learning resources.

Learning resources centers, material ingredients

A) Self-learning auditorium:
Self-learning auditorium should facilitate access to all kind of information resources: printed, depending on learning instrument and computerized resources. Then this auditorium should be available, attractive and suitable for student of all grades. Self-learning auditorium includes the following:
– Reception and visitors serving area, cataloguing, borrowing and
– management.
– Reading and perusal area.
– Self-learning area
– Electronic learning area
– Area when can be maintained learning resources
– Catalogues area
B) Group-learning auditorium:
The most important characterizing this auditorium is: it has a various equipments and uses, whereas available projectors depend on computer, radio or live presentation through digital camera. There is available, also, flexible furniture which can be reshaped to suit all kind of group and cooperative learning. And it also prepared for simple designing and production of educational materials and several media.

Collections

Educational resources are considered as most important element of the center, and without it the center cannot achieve its main role. Building and developing collections to be made according to specific policy, made and adapted in order to satisfy center's goals. This policy should ensure the building and development of integrated collection that can help and enrich educational curricula.

Learning resources center specialist's role

As a teacher, the library media specialists works with students and other members of the learning community to analyze learning and information needs, to locate and use resources that will meet those needs, and to understand and communicate the information the resource provides. The library media specialist is knowledgeable about current research on teaching and learning and skilled in applying its findings to a variety of situations – particularly those that call upon students to access, evaluate, and use information from multiple sources in order to learn, to think, and to create and to apply knowledge. In short, the library media specialist teaches students to use information for critical thinking and problem solving using the information literacy standards for student learning set.
A learning resources center's success depends firstly on the range of its engagement in modern learning methods implementation, which gives more concentration to learner role in learning process, and evaluates work mechanism, in learning resources centers on the bases that learning resources center is not a place supported with learning resources accordingly, but educational action and substantial element of different elements of classroom lesson.
The Work mechanism in learning resources centers requires following two methods and merging between them.
  1. Benefiting from learning resources centers requires each teacher to implement one lesson weekly in the learning resources center and to depend, in this lesson, mainly on group learning method .
  2. In the second method, benefiting from learning resources centers does not require teacher to implement class lesson in learning resources center, but he has to follow up the same previous procedures, then allow the students to implement their projects referring to learning resources center outside the lesson time, and students to be given, in this case, more time to implement the project, then require do a presentation and discussion in the class.

    Activities

The learning center implements a group of activities, designed and implemented by teachers in cooperation with center specialist. Methods of implementation of these activities differs according to educational grades and concentrate on implementation of modem educational and learning methods. Such activities are:
Center offers a group of services to meet student and educational staff needs, and these services can be developed according to their needs. These services: guiding readers, references services, borrow out, copying and scanning and bibliographical services.

Conclusion

Learning resources centers are the correct way to activate school library and to amalgamate it into educational procedure as well as it is a part from it, but not among subsidiary utilities. One of the biggest problems that still face school libraries is that school libraries still playing general cultural role lead to isolate them away from educational process. So they became a place to cover waiting lessons and an escape for every lazy teacher, who does not desire to carry out lessons, whereas learning resources centers project has put the center among educational process through its support by necessary technical and librarian equipments needed for teachers educational tasks performance within modem method, and supported these centers with supporting for curriculum educational resources, suitable for age types existing there, so center became a necessary place where teachers run to, to help them to implement their tasks and achieve their educational aims.