Policies

The mission of the Five Forks Middle School Library is to create a student-centered library media center, which provides a safe, nurturing environment in which students can successfully seek information and ideas for their educational, informational, and recreational needs. The library seeks to promote an appreciation of literature enabling the student to interpret meaning from various forms of literature as they become lifelong readers and learners.
Because teaching is the focal point of our school library, the Five Forks Media Center will strive to be an integral part of the instructional program, dedicated to providing our school community with the best possible resources and services.

The media center is open from 8:15 am – 4:00 pm.

• 20,000 Fiction and Non Fiction Books
• 10 magazines and journal subscriptions
• 59 online databases
• 412 eBooks

Students need an official pass prior to morning Library Media Center visits (before school).  This will allow the student to get through the security check check-point of the school(front or back entrance doors).  The pass needs to be issued a day before the visit by his/her subject area teacher;

Individual students can visit the Library Media Center during school hours for doing specific activities. He / She needs an official individual-pass and needs to report to the circulation desk:

• Book selection / check out: 15 minutes
• Reading /browsing / discovering: 15 – 30 minutes
• Listening/viewing activities: 15 – 30 minutes
• Researching activities: 15 – 30 minutes
• Word processing/computing activities: 15 – 30 minutes

Groups of students (no more than five students from the same class at a time) can visit the Library Media Center during school hours for doing specific activities.

We expect you to:

• Respect the Library Media Center staff, teachers, visitors, media assistants, and other students;
• Respect all Library Media Center areas, furniture, equipment, and collections;
• Enjoy leisure time with a moderate behavior;
• You must have your agenda book with you;
• Before you leave your Library Media Center area, make sure you leave it neat, clean, and organized, eating, chewing gum is prohibited in the Library Media Center (including staff and teachers).
• Rather than re-shelving books yourself, place them on the library carts to be re-shelved by our staff.

• Students are welcome to use the Media Center for research of class assignments.
• Students may check out (3) books for two weeks. This may include one magazine.
• Students are responsible for books and materials checked out in their name.
• Any overdue items must be returned before a student can check out another item.

Students may have access to all books including Teen Mature books (books marked with a yellow barcode) unless their parent has submitted a 'Teen Mature Opt-out Form'.

                   o  $20.00 Hardback
                   o  $10.00 Paperback
                   o  $5 for lost magazine

• If a student wishes to hold a book they must complete the request in DestinyQuest.
• Lost books must be paid for before a student may check out another book.
• Students who return damaged items will be assessed a fee relative to the amount or type of damage. If the book is unusable, then the replacement cost will prevail.
• Reference materials are available for one day check-out;
• Overdue notices will be sent to the homeroom teacher weekly.

Printing a photocopying service is provided as followed:

•  To print in black and white: the first two pages are free each additional page is $0.05 each
• To photocopy (black and white): $0.10 per page

The Five Forks Middle School actively collects materials that support the Gwinnett County AKS and the Common Core. All books and materials are approved by the Media Committee that is consisted of teacher and parent representatives. With that in mind, we select materials that support our diverse student population with a variety of reading interests, and levels. Our areas of collection include:

Upper Elementary (Grades 3-5)
Tween (Grades 6-8)
Teen Mature (Grades 8-10)

Our teen mature fiction collection includes language, themes or controversial subjects such as human rights violations, issues related to sexuality or other teen situations that are appropriate for the mature student or advanced reader who feels that he or she is ready for books that transition into high school libraries. The Media Center uses yellow barcodes to identify these books that are suitable for upper Middle School readers. Our Media Center strongly encourages parents to talk to their child about this subject and agree on what you feel appropriate as reading material. If a parent wishes to ‘Opt – out” of allowing his or her child access to the teen mature materials, submit the ‘Teen Mature Opt-out Form’ to the Media Specialist.

This form can be emailed to the Media Specialist  or turned in to the circulation desk. Please contact our Medial Specialist, if you have further questions about our teen mature fiction and nonfiction.