Upper Arlington City School District

Columbus Area, Ohio

Library Connects with Students in a District Environment

The Upper Arlington City School District (Ohio) stands out as an exceptional public school system, comprised of one high school, two middle schools, and five elementary schools serving nearly 5,700 students.

Libraries in this kind of environment need to reach students in libraries and on the Web where they spend a considerable amount of time. “The features and flexibility of Millennium Via are just right for us to connect with students online,” says Media Specialist Diane Zoeller. “KidsOnline gives our elementary students an image-based library-browsing system, while WebPAC Pro provides the advanced research functionality our older students need.”

“A boy practically leaped out of his chair because the My Via feature offers more information than other library systems he had used.”

—Diane Zoeller, Media Specialist, Upper Arlington City School District

School districts like Upper Arlington also depend on library systems to work well within school walls. "Millennium Via's circulation has given us renewed flexibility and service options," says Zoeller. "We can set our due dates and also set custom dates. When students have a project, we can extend the due date to coincide with the project due date. This lets us involve students in planning for the return of the materials."

In a district setting, it's important for a library system to fit with the overall technology and networking needs of the organization. "Software that can be driven and updated from one server and can run on the district's Macs and PCs is important to us," says Robert Allen, Director of Instructional Technology. Millennium Via works well in a shared environment because District technology staff can send software updates directly to any library terminal in the system or even change their IP addresses.

Upper Arlington's library staff know that books are an essential part of the service that school libraries provide. In order to make a wealth of books available to students, the District is in the process of joining OhioLINK, powered by INNReach—Innovative's consortial borrowing solution—to support the District's Advanced Placement classes and a new International Baccalaureate program for juniors and seniors. Says Zoeller: "This partnership will put millions of items at advanced students' fingertips and give instructors a great opportunity to teach research skills and prepare students for college."