(Verona, NY – Jan. 5, 2012) The Madison-Oneida BOCES Center for Instructional Support has received a $500 award from the New York Library Association (NYLA) to expand its collection of non-book materials.
CIS Coordinator Diana Wendell will accept the Robert E. Barron Award at the annual Section of School Librarians of NYLA Spring Conference in May.
The annual Barron Award is named for a former chief of the Bureau of School Library Media Program. It encourages recipients to purchase humanistic non-book materials beyond the traditional school curriculum materials.
Wendell plans to purchase additional items for the Adaptive Toy Library, a collection of toys aimed at children with various special needs that are not typically found in the general retail market. These nontraditional toys help special needs children develop and improve fine and gross motor skills, cognition, visual and social skills, mobility and independence.
The toys in the library are catalogued in a searchable online database that includes pictures of the toys, targeted skills and related toys other users have selected (http://media.moric.org/mom/). The toys are borrowed by teachers or other staff at districts served by Madison-Oneida BOCES. Students use the toys in their classrooms and also take them home to continue their learning beyond the school day.
This is the second recent award the CIS has received to expand its Adaptive Toy Library. In June, The Community Foundation of Herkimer and Oneida Counties provided a grant to expand the collection. The collection was started in 2004 with a grant from The Central New York Community Foundation.
The Center for Instructional Support provides a wide range of curricular materials, audiovisual services and expertise to teachers and administrators to support education through instructional and technical services. CIS has more than 44,000 items in its Media Library, as well as more than 32,000 digital titles, accessible online at any time.
