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Library Media Centers

In Pasco County Schools we believe that literacy is the key to unlock the big hopes and dreams of our students. School library media centers and classroom libraries play a critical role in supporting the mission and vision of Pasco County Schools. It is our aim to provide libraries that include materials that build knowledge, support state standards, are age/grade appropriate and engaging and relevant to students.

Digital Resources are only accessible to students who have full Library Media Usage Consent.

Click here to find materials located in your school's library media center collection. (MIND)

Beanstack

Get ready to join your student on a reading adventure with Beanstack, a platform designed to make reading fun!

Beanstack uses competition, recognition, and proven gamification principles to motivate students to read and develop a life-long love of reading. Whether your student chooses fiction, nonfiction, graphic novels, or articles online, any and all reading counts in Beanstack! By tracking their daily reading, your student will begin to build healthy reading habits and become a more confident reader.

When students log their reading via Beanstack’s web or mobile app, they:

Earn digital badges as they reach milestones
Compete on leaderboards and build streaks for reading every day
Track everything they read on their virtual bookshelf.
For a glimpse of what students will experience with Beanstack, click here!

Gale

Gale resources provide dynamic collections of digital resources designed to support learning, exploration, and growth at every age. Our online library includes a frequently updated selection of books, magazines, and newspapers, along with a robust collection of reference e‑books, encyclopedias, and almanacs. Students from preschool through postgraduate levels can find materials tailored to their needs, whether they’re completing homework, conducting research, or exploring new interests. In addition, parents and caregivers will find helpful tools for career development, job searching, and small business support—including a convenient résumé builder. These resources are available anytime to help learners and families succeed.

Click here for directions to use Gale resources at home. Gale Student Access

Discovery Education

Discovery Education Experience provides dedicated content collections, culturally authentic material and standards-aligned content and resources to make digital learning engaging and accessible to all students. Discovery Education’s resources and tools support instruction and learning in the digital learning environment with many ways to engage all students daily with multimodal resources, tools, and instructional strategies.

Click here for the Discovery Education Experience – Overview

Sora

Sora provides students in Pasco County Schools with access to a limited collection of free eBooks and audiobooks! This content is provided as optional, self-selected reading material for students and families to enjoy. The Sora platform offers reading accessibility tools such as Dyslexic font, high-contrast mode, and translation support for 13 languages. The Sora app can be accessed from student myPascoConnect dashboards.

You may also access additional information about reading a free Sora eBook or listening to an audiobook in Sora's help center. https://help.soraapp.com/en-us/categories/reading-listening.ht

Florida Kids

Florida Kids, need help with your Florida projects and assignments? You can learn about Florida's people from 14,000 years ago to the present, people of all cultures who have made our state their home, and other Florida facts. You can also find Florida's state symbols like the state bird or the state song. Click here to learn more.

Florida Memory

The Florida Memory Classroom is designed to help teachers and students use photographs, documents, sound recordings and film footage from the State Library and Archives of Florida to explore history. Click here to learn more.

Learning Ally

Learning Ally is an audio book platform available to students who meet eligibility requirements; significant reading deficits, visually impaired, and students with designations such as multilingual learner (MLL), autism, ADHD, having an IEP/504, should also be considered for eligibility based on the criteria outlined. School-based staff must enroll students. Learn more about who is eligible. Learning Ally Eligibility Guide.pdf

myON

myON is a digital library. eBook content is only accessible to students enrolled in eSchool classes. Titles are dynamically matched to each individual student’s interests, grade and reading level. Combined with a suite of close reading tools and embedded support, myON fosters student engagement and achievement.

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Collection Development Procedure

Effective July 1, 2022, each book newly made available to students through a school library media center or included in a recommended or assigned school or grade level reading list must be selected and approved by a District employee who holds a valid educational media specialist certificate, regardless of whether the book is purchased, donated or otherwise made available to students.

The District's Library Media Specialists will endeavor to stay informed about appropriate new publications, using multiple sources, such as discussions with colleagues, attendance at conferences, and reading a variety of periodicals and book reviews. The Library Media Specialists will also receive and consider suggestions or requests brought forward by other faculty, students and parents.

Potential new books for the school library media center and reading lists will be evaluated to determine if they would be suitable for student needs and whether they would be appropriate for the intended grade level and age group. In considering possible new acquisitions, the Library Media Specialists will consult reputable, professionally recognized reviewing periodicals and school community stakeholders. The Library Media Specialist will also assess the level of student interest in the subject(s) presented and the ability of students to comprehend the material. Books that are selected must be free of pornography and material prohibited under F.S. 847.012.

The goal of the selection process is for the school's library media center and reading list collections to be based on reader interest, the support of State standards and aligned curriculum, and the academic needs of students and faculty.

After evaluation, the Library Media Specialists will inform principals of those books that have been evaluated and are approved for inclusion in the collections.

Periodically, books will be removed from the collection or discontinued, based on their poor physical condition, low rate of recent circulation, non-alignment to State standards, out-of-date content, or status following a parent's or community member's objection.