Our K-5 elementary school is located in the Bronx, NY. Our student population is highly diversified, traditionally with a high percentage of Hispanic and African American students. In recent years, a large immigrant population is adding to the diversity of our student population. Our newest students are mainly from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Guyana, Dominican Republic, and China. Presently, our enrollment is approximately 600+ students of which 93.4% are eligible for free lunch. PS 36 is in good standing and although we have recently been selected as a model school; our school still falls under category 09 – which refers to a high needs school. We recently opened a reinvented library media center (LMC). The mission of our LMC is to combine strategic reading instruction with inquiry based information literacy lessons. This goal is achieved by creating student participatory resource based lessons, approximately 4-8 weeks in length. These units designed collaboratively by the library media specialist and the classroom teacher are aligned with the curriculum and consistent with city and state performance standards. Simultaneously, we operate an open access library intended for independent book circulation geared to students in all grades, including our special needs students. These units are scheduled for all grades and classes including our special needs population and bilingual classes. It is well researched and without question that MODELING key reading strategies is the most effective literacy instruction. This is accomplished by using a laptop computer, projector, and large enough screen to be viewed by all students. While we have a projector and screen, our students are in DIRE NEED of a quality multimedia laptop that supports our multidimensional (modeling and technology) teaching goals. These resource-based units integrate many curriculum areas such as reading, writing, humanities, technology, and information literacy skills. Students work collaboratively in heterogeneous groups of four, and every effort is made to meet the individual needs of all students. All members of the group have an active role in learning! Students are assessed informally and formally. A student designed evaluation form is used to self-monitor each group's weekly progress. This approach fosters individual and group accountability. Until we are able to procure laptops for students to create culinating presentations using Power Point, Movie Making, Digital Photography, our students deliver oral and written presentations designed to share their information with other groups of students. The topics of these resource-based units are usually requested by classroom teachers. They tie into mandated curricula but make it so much more substantial. Teachers often request curricula that often takes a back seat to the overwhelming precedent on citywide test prep. Students benefit enormously from the opportunity to engage in these comprehensive and higher-order thinking resource-based units! Our request for a quality laptop is based on so many legitimate needs. The most critical need is the ability to access the multitude of quality online resources that only PC platforms support. After gaining access to United Streaming Videos, sponsored by Public Broadcast, The New York Historical Digital Learning Project, we discovered that only the PC platform supports this exemplary educational online resource. These and other resource offers the very best in online educational content consistent with the curriculum and with the resource-based units taught in the LMC. A library multimedia laptop will benefit out students tremendously by participating in demonstration strategic reading lessons that will lead them to independent literacy skills, and capitalizing on the pllethora of online resources geared to their needs. Our library media center is automated. We're fortunate to have the finest library automation system. It includes an online catalogue, with visual and categorical search features. The visual search is particularly well suited to our younger students who can view the icons (pictures) of a topic (such as animals, multi-cultural folktales, fairytales, and witches) and then locate the books. The categorical features allows for the library media specialist to create categories inclusive of genres, curriculum, popular interests; and then place suggested titles into these categories. The finest books are predetermined by the LMS, thus making the students' selection process more manageable. Students and teachers would benefit enormously from a thorough understanding of how this exemplary automation system works. Furthermore, because our automation system is online; students, parents, and teachers CAN ACCESS IT AND USE THE LINKED RESOURCES FROM HOME. This leads to parents taking a proactive role in what their children are reading. Again, only a PC supports these features and without a PC laptop, it is impossible to provide the critical demonstration lessons that will allow our entire school community to benefit from this extraordinary system. A greater understanding of this automation system will increase parent involvement, circulation, reading scores, and foster independent and lifelong information literacy skills. Finally, the acquisition of one quality multimedia laptop would allow our students to learn advanced applications including Power Point, movie making, and digital photography. A machine that supports these applications will allow students to create computerized, digital, and video presentations consistent with the long term units students are engaged in. This will also gives them the advantage to learn advanced applications early in life; when they are most responsive to learning and least intimated by technology. Of course, this can only be achieved by obtaining a quality, multimedia, PC laptop. As a library media specialist and certified reading teacher, my overall goal is to procure enough laptops for student use in the library media center. To this end, I have been writing grants, submitting proposals, contacting politicians and corporations. Meanwhile, our greatest need is to obtain one laptop for student interactive use! This will make quality reading instruction possible, which can only be achieved by displaying text and modeling those cognitive reading strategies that real readers automatically and unconsciously use. Of equal priority is for our students to have access to the multitude of remarkable online resources, consistent with their instruction. At this time, they are being deprived of these available and exemplary resources. Finally, this laptop is needed to teach our students advanced computer applications that will give them a LEARNING CURVE in the future. Should someone consider this significant proposal, I guarantee that this laptop will EXCLUSIVELY be used in the library. Written and photographic evidence of student use and feedback will be provided immediately. Thank you kindly for considering our Bronx students' needs.