Welcome to Atlantic Technical Center

and

Technical High School

Media Center

This page will help you learn about the various Media Center resources available to you as a student or staff member of ATC. If you have questions about how to locate, access, or use any of these resources, please e-mail the media specialist by clicking on the e-mail logo at the top right of the home page.

Section I: Library Policies and Procedures

A. Media services and materials are available at three locations on the ATC campus. Students enrolled in technical programs may use the Building 10 Media and Technology Resource Center. Students enrolled at the Magnet High School may use the resources available in the Portable 14 Media Center Office and in Room 2401. Ten book trucks with most of the fiction collection as well as the BOOK DROP RETURN are located in 2401. Biographies and a variety of nonfiction books are also housed in 2401. For a list of books, equipment, and audiovisual materials that are available at each facility, please access the Forms & Handouts page of this website. For a complete explanation of all policies and procedures, please select the Media Handbook, also available from the Forms & Handouts page.

B. Library Hours: Monday - Friday

Building 10 Media and Technology Resource Center: 7:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m.

Portable 14 Media Center: 6:45 a.m.-2:15 p.m.

Room 2401: 6:30 a.m. - 2:45 p.m.

Please note: High school students may visit the appropriate Media Center facility before or after school, or during class with teacher permission. Please call the portable/Room 2401 first, since many times the media specialist is teaching in high school classrooms.

Section II: Use of Media Center Materials

A. How to locate books or audiovisual materials in the Media Center Collection

To find a book, a video, or an audiobook in the library, you need to use DESTINY QUEST, the Broward County online library database. You can find a link to DESTINY QUEST at the Virtual Information Center page of this website. You may search for materials in the ATC Media Center without logging in. To check your library record or to search for materials in other school media centers, you will need to log in. Students log in with their student number and birthdate (00/00/0000); teachers use their personnel ID number. To search all Broward County schools' libraries, you will need to EXIT DESTINY QUEST, and do a library search in DESTINY. Be sure to change the LOCATION in the drop down box to School Board of Broward County. To check your library record, click on MY INFO.

To view a video tutorial about using DESTINY QUEST, click HERE.

Library materials are divided into two groups: Fiction and Nonfiction. Fiction books are arranged on the shelves in alphabetical order by the author's last name. Nonfiction books are arranged according to the Dewey Decimal System.

When using DESTINY QUEST, you can search by subject, author, or title - just enter the information in the search box and press "enter." Remember, spelling is important! If our library owns the item you are searching for, you will need to write down the CALL NUMBER. For fiction books, this will be the letter "F" followed by the first three letters of the author's last name.

For example: F Ste would be the CALL NUMBER for Of Mice and Men, a novel by John Steinbeck.

The CALL NUMBER of a nonfiction book will be a number that represents the subject of the book, followed by the first three letters of the author's last name. You will use this number to look for the item on our media center shelves.

For example, some science books can be found in the 500's classification, so the CALL NUMBER for Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species is 576.82 Dar.

For more information about the Dewey Decimal System, try this link.

2. If our media center does NOT own an item you would like to borrow, you can request an interlibrary loan. You may e-mail the media specialist with your request OR use the form provided at the FORMS & HANDOUTS page of this website and drop off the request in Room 2401.

3. To borrow a library item, you will need your student ID. Library materials may be borrowed for a two week period. You may renew this loan for another two weeks, if no other student has requested that item. Although we do not charge fines for late materials, we ask that you please return library materials to the media center in a timely fashion.

B. Periodicals (Magazines and Newspapers)

Both media facilities house a variety of magazines and newspapers available for student and staff use. Please see the current list of periodicals at the Forms & Handouts page of this website.

Section III: Online Resources

As a student or staff member, you have access to several online databases. Links to these can be found at the Virtual Information Center page of this website. To use these resources from home, you will need passwords, which are available in the Online Resources Brochure, available in either Media Center facility and in Room 2401.

A. Cengage Learning

- Cengage Learning includes several databases. Read the descriptions of the specialized databases at the Cengage Learning homepage to select the one most appropriate to your needs. The databases include:

Student Resource Center Gold, Literature Resource Center, Opposing Viewpoints, Gale Virtual Reference Library, Health and Wellness Resource Center, Academic OneFile, General OneFile, Informe (Spanish language), What do I read next?, Popular Magazines, Computer Database, U.S. History Civil War.

B. Grolier Online

- FIVE encyclopedias in one convenient location: Encyclopedia Americana; Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia, New Book of Knowledge; Lands and People; Popular Science

- You can also access a dictionary, atlas, as well as newspaper articles from around the world.

- Use the FIND IT FAST search box to locate articles from encyclopedias, plus links to magazine articles and reviewed websites about your topic.

- On the left column of the homepage, there is also a link to an online tutorial if you need more help.

C. SIRS Researcher

- A general reference database containing full-text articles from over 1,500 domestic and international publications. Use this database to explore social, scientific, health, historic, business, economic, political and global issues in magazines and newspapers.

- Search by subject, keyword, natural language, or topic browse.

- Special features include: dictionary, thesaurus, world maps, excerpts from the World Almanac, Today's News, Leading Issues (in depth study of hot topics from today's news)

- Access the Quick Start Guide for a complete explanation of SIRS Researcher.

D. BEEP - Broward Education Portal

- The "Student Portal" gives you access to a variety of free student resources including ONLINE TEXTBOOKS.

- Enter your student ID number and birthdate to access these Online Resources.