General Information

DESCRIPTION OF THE SCHOOL

Hillcrest High School is located at 160-05 Highland Avenue, Jamaica, NY. There are 3340 students registered for school year 2008-2009.

LIBRARY MISSION STATEMENT:

The mission of the Hillcrest High School Library Media Center is to insure that students and staff become effective life long users of ideas and information by providing free and equal access to materials that meet intellectual, curriculum and recreational needs, instructional information retrieval, and networking with available resources.

PROGRAM:

The library is open periods 1-9 (8:00 AM to 3:40 PM). It is an open access library, i.e. class visits are scheduled throughout the day while students visit during their lunch periods. The library has two New York State certified Library Media Specialists. The library does not have paid support staff assigned to the library.

COLLECTION

Over 13,300 books are catalogued in the library

Approximately 300 non-book materials are catalogued in the library.

BUDGET:

The library NYSTL budget was reduced by $3000 for fiscal year 2008-2009.

TECHNOLOGY

The library website is http://hillcrestlibrary.org.

The library has 12 functioning computers, all with Internet access.

Technical support for Winnebago Spectrum System renewed until June 2009.

At the beginning of fiscal year 2008-2009, the total number of subscription databases, including NOVEL was 38. As of March 2009, the total number of these research databases including NOVEL is 5.

LIBRARY APPEARANCE/SET UP

The library has a library office, three main rooms, a magazine/archive area, and two small rooms. One small room houses a collection of books in other languages. The other room is reserved for the Forest Hills Community House Young Women’s Program. The library classroom next to the library office is referred to as the Fiction, Short Story and Biography room or Classroom A. It has 7 tables and 30 chairs. The main room of the library has a circulation desk, a front desk computer and 8 other computers with one printer. There is also and one copier machine for students. There is an emergency exit located near the magazine/archive room. In the main room, there are 8 tables, one of which is wheelchair accessible and 50-55 chairs. The library classroom near the student copier machine is called the Non-Fiction Room or Library Classroom B. It has 6 tables and 30 chairs and a copier machine for teachers. Air conditioning units are securely placed in the windows: 2 units in the Fiction Biography Room, 2 units in the Non-Fiction Room and 4 units in the main room.