No matter how you sound it out, the word is FUN.

It's been said that a man's home is his castle. Well at Jackson, so too is a student's library. At our Main Campus, the entire space is designed as a whimsical tower of learning complete with draping pennants, medieval embellishments and even dragons!

There's a serious side to this facade though. It comes in the form of a carefully reviewed - and extensively compiled - collection of reading materials developed with the goal of creating lifelong readers and learners. In addition, books are specifically chosen to reinforce the high standards of the school’s curriculum and educational goals, and appropriately reflect the grade/reading level of the students at the Main Campus and Jackson Primary. This collection is cataloged via the web, and available to review at www2.youseemore.com/AtlantaPS/Default.asp. (You must select Jackson to search our collection.)

Supervising both facilities are head librarian Lynn Handley, and her assistant, Teresa Webb. Along with running one of the quietest and tightest libraries this side of Camelot, each works to provide flexible scheduling with all Jackson teachers regarding special instruction for library skills, as well as convenient scheduling of Jackson's computer lab (which also houses an interactive whiteboard and LCD projector). For students, they work to show how reading isn't work and encourage these readers to instead focus on the fun of the journey found in every book surrounding them.

Beyond its day-to-day agenda, the Media Center/Library offers a variety of special events throughout the year from book readings on site (with many local authors!), to book fairs partnered with Scholastic that help raise money for facility improvements, to a special student sleepover hosted by our Principal and Assistant Principal (an Auction fundraiser tradition)!

This area is also home to the acclaimed Accelerated Reader (AR) program used to supplement each student's in-class reading efforts. This computer-based management program helps track a child's reading by enabling him/her to take short comprehension quizzes after completing a book. Besides making essential reading practice more effective for every student, AR helps foster a love of reading and learning, and challenges all participants to meet specific goals throughout the year. For more information on AR, log on to: http://www.renlearn.com.

The Media Center/Library at our Main Campus is open from 7:30 AM until 3:00 PM on every school day except Wednesday, when the closing time is 3:30 to accommodate tutorials.

Other Fun Vehicles for Reading and Researching:

Don’t forget to check out Galileo, Georgia's virtual library, along with many other useful sites that you can access from the APS website mentioned above. Galileo is password protected, but is available to anyone in the state of Georgia. It is the recommended site for internet searches for students. Contact a staff member of the school (or a public library) for a password if you do not know it.

During the summer, students can keep their love of reading going strong! Just check out the list of great books suggested on the school's summer reading lists.

>> To access the Summer Reading Lists, please click here

>> To find a book or determine a book level, please go to www.arbookfind.com

>> To access a student’s AR record, please go to http://hosted115.renlearn.com/51385. Click on “Find User Name” and password is birthdate (mmddyy).

>> To search Jackson library catalog, please go to www2.youseemore.com/AtlantaPS/Default.asp

>> To see an online collection of animated, talking picture books which teach young children the joys of reading in a format they'll love, see TumbleBookLibrary. After reading the books, students can take a quiz or write a book report. Our Username is wtjackson and our password is books. To download theTumbleBook icon to your desktop, please click here.