Welcome to Walton County School District's Library Media Services. Our mission is to maintain school-based media programs that are dynamic, creative, and fully committed to developing our diverse community of learners. Our library media specialists provide crucial support as they connect our students, teachers, and other staff members with informational resources needed to integrate information, communication, and technology across the K-12 curriculum. It is our desire to provide ongoing leadership, advocacy, and support to continue building quality library media progams that:

• Cultivate a collaborative culture of inquiry and literacy analysis/appreciation,

• Encourage independent, ethical exploration, creative production, and communication of information and ideas,

• Ensure collections are current, accurate and reflective of the communities they serve, and

• Create an environment that is inviting, safe, flexible. and conducive to learning.

Board Policy and Procedures

Educational Media Materials Selection Policy 4.22 

Guidelines for challenged materials Our schools follow School Board policy and State Board of Education rules regarding the selection and appropriateness for materials in media collections. Each center strives to maintain a wide range of materials in a variety of formats, with multiple levels of difficulty, and that represent multiple points of view. These materials are selected by professionally trained personnel who hold Florida's Educational Media Specialist certification. We realize everyone may not agree with each selection decision since collections are developed to appeal to a wide range of ages, interests, and tastes. Therefore, in the event a Walton County concerned citizen or parent of a student enrolled in a Walton County school desires to challenge the use of a library media resource, the following process will be followed:

• Parent, guardian or Walton County citizen completes the Request for Reconsideration of Library Media Material form found in the link below.

• The form should be completed in its entirety and submitted to the school principal where the material is housed.

• The school principal will convene a committee in accordance with School Board Policy 4.22 (link above). The committee will read the material in its entirity and evaluate the educational value of the material in question and make a decision.

• The principal will notify the parent, guardian or citizen of the committee decision.

• If the parent, guardian or citizen disagrees with the decision, an appeal may be filed with the District for district level review committee action.

Request for Reconsideration of Library Media Material Form

The District must keep a record of all Requests for Reconsideration. The record will include the specific objections, the result of the reconsideration process, and the grade level or course for any library media materials that may be removed or discontinued.  At the present time we have not received a request to reconsider any library media materials.  Upon receipt of a reconsideration request, the link below will be live for anyone to see what has been challenged.

Reconsideration Requests

• Ask A Librarian

• Florida Electronic Library

• Purdue Owl - MLA Guide

Florida Department of Education Library Media Training

In 2022, section 1006.29, Florida Statutes, was amended by House Bill 1467 to require the Florida Department of Education to develop an online training program for librarians, media specialists, and other personnel involved in the selection and maintenance of library collections. This training is now live and can be accessed through the Florida Department of Education Instructional Materials webpage at https://www.fldoe.org/academics/standards/instructional-materials/ under “General Information.”

Destiny Library Catalog

Walton County Schools utilize the Follett Destiny Library Management System to catalog all materials maintained in each school's library media center. The Destiny Library Catalog can be accessed by visiting each school's individual website and selecting Media Center. To search the entire district media collection, please access using the following link: https://destiny.walton.k12.fl.us/.

Classroom Library Collections

Classroom library collections are managed through Libib Pro. To access the classroom library of your child's teacher, you will need to visit the school's webpage, select  "Faculty & Staff" at the top of the page and then click the link next to your child's teacher to view the collection. This feature will be available August 10, 2023.