Media Center

Welcome to the Ashley River Creative Arts Media Center! 

  
                                                 

    

Our mission is to inspire a love of reading, the arts, and lifelong learning in all of our students. On a typical day in the media center, students may be writing or performing a puppet show, using research databases to gather information, learning about new books and authors, or using iPads to film commercials to convince settlers to travel on the Oregon Trail. We strive to make the media center a welcoming, friendly place.

The media center is open every school day from 8:40 to 3:20 PM. Students visit the media center once a week with their class but can ask their teachers for library passes to visit at any time. Students in First Grade and above can check out two books at a time. Books are due after two weeks but may be renewed. If a student has ten or more books checked out at one time, they are required to turn at least some of them in before they can checkout others. While no fines are charged for overdue books, students are encouraged to return books promptly so other students may have the opportunity to read them. In the case of lost books, students are encouraged to keep looking for them until the end of the year. At that time, if the books are still lost, students must pay for them before receiving their report card.

Digital Resources

Many of our digital resources are available online and can be accessed from home. Some require passwords. Please contact Mr. Grayson for help logging in.

Online Library Catalog (Destiny): Our catalog is available 24/7. Students can access a personalized version of the catalog, Destiny Quest, which can be found on the left hand side of the catalog's homepage. Contact Mr. Grayson for login information for Destiny Quest. No logins are required for our main catalog.

DISCUS: DISCUS is a large collection of research databases and educational apps available free to all South Carolina residents. Databases and apps include BrainPop Jr., Britannica School, Study SC, CultureGrams, Animal Kingdom, Biography in Context, and more. Accessing DISCUS from home requires a password. Contact Mr. Grayson for more information.

MackinVIA: MackinVIA contains a large collection of eBooks, audiobooks, databases, and education apps. It contains all of the databases and apps listed above for DISCUS, plus BrainPOP, PebbleGo, MyOn Reader, TeachingBooks, and 
MyOn Reader. MackinVIA requires a password. Please contact Mr. Grayson for more information.

Readers' Resources 

Nominees for the South Carolina Picture Book Award: Each year, a team of media specialists nominate 20 books to compete for the S.C. Picture Book Award. Students from Kindergarten to Third Grade who read at least five nominees can vote for their favorite book. The winning book is announced in February. 

Nominees for the South Carolina Children's Book Award: These 20 books are competing for this year's S.C. Children's Book Award. Students from Third Grade to Fifth can vote for their favorite children's book. A student must read at least three nominees before they can vote.

Lexile Book Finder: Students can find the Lexile level of a book on this website. The Lexile level is a measure of the complexity of a text. It also measures the reading level of a student. Finding books which fall within a student's Lexile level range ensures that the book will be challenging but not too complex for the student.

 

Did You Know?

• The media center has over 9,500 books.
  
  
• There were over 21,000 circulations during the 2023-24 school year.
  
  
• Teams of fifth-graders produce and star in our morning news show, WUNI News.
  
  
• Students read over 185,000 pages in our Summer Reading program and the top student read over 18,000.
  
  
• Parents and other community members are welcome to volunteer in our media center.

 

 

 

"There is an art of reading, as well as an art of thinking, and an art of writing." 

—Isaac D'Israeli