After the bell has rung signifying Power Hour, students may find themselves going to the library to get work done. Under the previous system, students may be waiting for five to 10 extra minutes just to see if their name would be written on the 50-person list for admission to the media center. With the new system and the help of the media specialist Amy Franco, students now experience a much smoother transition.

“I go to the library all the time, and before the sign-in took up a lot of time and some days I wouldn’t even be able to stay because all the spots had been filled up already,” Sofia Schaafsma (9) said. ” Now I can get in quick and do the work I came to do without wasting any of my time.”

The media center staff is particularly happy about the new system.

“[The computers] make it really easy to get everybody inside at Power Hour, especially because it used to take a longer time because everyone had to write down their name,” Franco said.

The computers offer more than just a way of keeping track of who comes in and out. They are also used in different aspects of the media center.

“We never had a dedicated computer for the OPAC, which is the catalog for all the books, so the computer is a great time-saver because students can go up and look for the book they want instead of having to log into a computer and search up the website,” Franco said.

By Reilly Stein