OET

OET Library Services Team Welcomes Opportunity to Work with the School Library Community!
Who loves and supports library services? We do—your library services team!

The Office of Educational Technology (OET) at the Virginia Department of Education is committed to supporting library services and providing resources needed by school library media specialists.

To that end, we would like to introduce the OET staff members who will serve as contacts for the library services community. Joyce Faye White, Linda Holt, and Jean Weller are excited about this new opportunity to communicate with this dynamic group of educators who have faithfully served and supported students, teachers, and administrators in their efforts to enhance and improve academic achievement.


 * Joyce Faye White**

Joyce Faye White has an undergraduate degree in education with a double major in history and library science. She also has an MA in secondary education with a major in history and an MLS from Catholic University of America. Her internship specialized in online information at the GTE Telnet professional library and information center in Fairfax, Virginia.

Joyce has experience in both public and independent school teaching and libraries. She has also been a technology coordinator.

While at the Virginia Department of Education, Joyce has provided guidance, training, and resources related to instructional technology utilization by teachers, library media specialists, and instructional technology resource teachers. As the WebEx coordinator for OET, she has provided numerous online professional development opportunities. Most recently, Joyce helped to develop guidelines and resources for Internet Safety in Schools.


 * Jean Weller**

Jean Weller is a bibliophile and is always in the midst of reading two or three books. She also loves technology (but regrets to say she has never been able to cozy up to electronic books). She has a long history with educational technology, having worked as the technology outreach person for Central Virginia’s Ideastations (PBS) for many years before joining the Virginia DOE as part-time staff. Her passion is making sure teachers have the tools and background knowledge they need to empower their students.

Jean heads the MarcoPolo project in Virginia and works on other DOE projects such as the __Guidelines and Resources for Internet Safety in Schools__. And she is excited about assisting the library media specialists! Jean sees this new opportunity as a great way to interact with some wonderful educators.


 * Linda Holt**

Linda Holt taught English and Spanish I-IV prior to her twenty three year career as a high school library media specialist. As the role and responsibilities of the library media specialist changed, Linda became proficient in the use of technology. She offered leadership in technology planning and training. She is a long time member of VEMA and was honored to receive the regional VEMA School Library Media Specialist of the Year award prior to coming to the Office of Educational Technology. One of her biggest regrets when coming to the Department of Education was that her connection to school libraries became more distant, and she is excited to have this opportunity to focus on issues and trends that impact school libraries.

The unique talents and skills of the OET library services team promises to not only continue the support and services the school library community has come to expect but will also expand the opportunities for delivering those services. To that end, we encourage continued dialogue on the needs and interests of school library media specialists. We ask that ideas, questions, and suggestions for training be submitted to us using the unique e-mail account established specifically for this constituency. That address is library.services@doe.virginia.gov.

What Your Library Media Services Team Can Do For You [[file:edtech07.ppt]]
=VDOE Reports=