This article explores in some detail the regional media centers in Iowa. (Editor)

A funny thing happened in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on the way to passing a $46 million school bond during the 2000-01 school year. Through the use of a scientific telephone survey, school district officials determined residents were more than happy to upgrade their school libraries, but were significantly more tight-fisted when it came to improving…

For a pilot evaluation of Iowa's regional educational media centers, the 16 centers were organized into four groups according to total public and non-public school enrollment size, and one area was selected at random from each group. Within each group, participants included all county superintendents, all district superintendents, 15 percent of…

To support school media centers and services in Iowa, guidelines for the development of district and Area Education Agency (AEA) media programs are proposed. The complementary roles and functional responsibilities of the school districts, the regional AEA's, the State Department of Public Instruction Media Program, and higher education in Iowa are…

These guidelines for weeding library media collections are addressed to elementary and secondary school library media centers and to community college and vocational school library resource centers in Iowa. The publication includes some philosophy about weeding, and specific guidelines are summarized in bold-faced type for ease of use. The…

This guide presents practical information about planning a school library media center budget in consideration of the goals and objectives of the district, the school, and of the particular programs involved, both for the year under consideration, and for the future. Three chapters are devoted to discussions of initiating a budget, the Iowa budget…

The functions, roles and responsibilities, and services of school media centers and public libraries at the local and state levels are succinctly discussed, and supportive functions and services provided by the State Library Commission of Iowa and the Department of Public Instruction are indicated. Also enumerated are recommendations for school…

As a result of an Iowa state mandate for budgeting of school library media centers, the publication "Planning the School Library Media Center Budget" was updated in 1991. Since that time, the Uniform Financial Accounting's document has phased in a management information system which includes different numbers and dimensions from those…

This report describes a 1979 survey of 389 Iowa school districts which was conducted to determine the state of instructional materials selection policies in each district. Respondents, usually high school library media specialists, furnished data in three areas: (1) the current state of their district media selection policies, (2) selection policy…

This second edition of guidelines for weeding school library media collections is addressed especially to elementary and secondary school library media centers and to community college and vocational school library resource centers in Iowa. This publication is designed for those who want weeding of all formats of materials and equipment (not just…

This booklet presents guidelines for planning the school library media center budget based on short and long range plans for maintaining and developing collections and services. It is noted that such planning should consider the goals and objectives of the district, the school, and particular programs, and that democratic budgeting should involve…

In response to the requests of library media workshop participants who were queried during the 1982-1983 school year by the Iowa Department of Public Instruction about what would be most helpful to them in the area of library skills, this sampler of library media skills teaching ideas was produced. Ideas were solicited from practicing library…

The functions, roles and responsibilities, and services of school media centers and public libraries at the local and state levels are discussed, as are the supportive functions and services provided by the State Library Commission of Iowa and the Department of Public Instruction. An extensive list of recommendations outlines the part that…

Iowa's 16 regional educational media centers are described. Following a brief overview of the history of the centers and of their current functions as service organizations which work with county and local agencies to improve instruction in the state's schools, two page discussions of each of the individual centers are presented. Specific details…