Today I am subbing for my 10th grade biology teacher; which is weird all on its own since I haven't walked these halls in 6 years and now I am a substitute teacher running into all of my previous teachers... So after the initial shock... I decided to go speak with the librarian here who was hired the year after I graduated and seems awesome at relating to the students judging by the high school library website. I was very pleased with my experience.
This librarian (whom I will not name due to confidentiality reasons) was very down to earth and quite blunt but I loved it. She had a lengthy discussion with me about her career and how she does things in the library and why. I even got a full tour. She let me know first thing that the pretty picture they paint for you in library school is not what the real world is like, her job has been on the chopping block every year but this one, when she first arrived at this high school she was seen as a more of a study hall monitor than a librarian (sometimes it still seems that way), and no one was interested in collaborating with her.
She started by rearranging the library; moving a row of computers out of an area that was blocking access to the fiction section which was her next task. No one was taking out the books on the shelves; so she started doing her research, asking the students what they like to read, and filling the shelves with that. Now the library has a very nice fiction section. Some of it is color coded, new releases and displays are sprinkled throughout, and books are coming off the shelves again. We looked at the nonfiction section which is gaining greater curricular importance thanks to the Common Core standards which New York state has begun adapting. However, the only nonfiction books taken out are generally biographies about mobsters, athletes, and other famous people. There was a 2 volume set about French Canadian History that looked like it hadn't been touched in years.
The reference section was located against the wall on the far wall behind the computers. There was a question in the librarian's mind as to whether the reference books were even worth keeping with missing volumes and students flocking to online databases.
She is working with a high school earth science teacher on developing and co-teaching a bioethics course in the fall which I found very exciting.
Even though the life of this particular school librarian isn't all rainbows and butterflies, she stressed that she loved her job which made me happy to hear admist her struggles. I found this to be a very beneficial experience.
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