Liz Percy is the Librarian at Westwood High School
and received a 2018 Web Seal of Excellence Award.

Zoe Keenan is the Library Media Specialist at Frontier Regional School in South Deerfield.

Allegra D'Ambruoso is the Library and Technology Director at Boston Arts Academy
and is a recipient of a 2017 MSLA President's Award.

Being a librarian is a thankless job; being a school librarian is even worse.

Reason 1: Early Mornings.

The school day starts anywhere from 7am until 9am; but of course, teachers (including you!) have to be there before classes start. This means that if your school starts at 8am, you should probably be there by 7:30 or 7:45 at the latest, or else students will be lined up outside your library door, impatiently waiting for you to show up and let them in. These kids will be the kids who need to print an assignment for their class that starts at 8 (“Well, Miss, you see, what happened was...”); or who simply must tell you about their newest break-up; or who want to get your advice on what color they should dye their hair next. These kids are often the most needy kids; you’ll often realize that they need snacks, breakfast, juice, gloves, and a hug. They’re some of the best kids to get to know. They’ll be willing to help you shelve books, talk about new books to order, and always know when you need a compliment to cheer you up (“Miss, did you cut your hair? It’s cuuuuuute!”).  Accept that you are one of the reasons they come to school; that you might be the most understanding adult that they know; and realize that you are going to cry when they graduate.

Zoe Keenan is the Library Media Specialist at Frontier Regional School in South Deerfield

Margaret Schoen is a Library Teacher at Newton South High School

Susan King and Paula Myers are Teacher-Librarians at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School
and recipients of a 2017 MSLA Web Seal of Excellence

We want to share a source evaluation tool that we developed along with two teachers from our school. Our moment of inspiration came during the excellent July 2015 workshop, Are You Research Ready? (facilitated by Pam Harland and Rachel Small). In discussing how the library taught evaluation, we explained to the teachers in the group that we did so as needed, sharing questions that students should consider or pointing them to websites that could help. But we librarians were interested in developing a more formalized system for teaching source evaluation at our school—one that teachers would be comfortable sharing in their classrooms.

We were aware of some tools and acronyms that other folks used and decided to build on that work to create another system. Our intent was not to reinvent the wheel; we were just being realistic about what our teachers would get on board with and be willing to share with students (much as students might like the CRAAP test acronym, we knew that some of our teachers would not go for that).  ​
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By Anonymous 

Deeth Ellis is a librarian at the Boston Latin School
and a winner of the 2016 Super Librarian award

Pamela Vallee is a Librarian at Lunenburg High School in Lunenburg, MA
and a winner of a 2016 Super-Librarian Award

Karen Davidson-Heller is the Library Director at Malden Catholic High School
and a winner of a 2016 Web Seal of Excellence

When I began at Malden Catholic ten years ago as Library Director, it was a career change for me after numerous years working as a technical writer and graphic designer. With a nervous mix of excitement and terror, I embraced the challenges of working in a high school library. I immediately jumped into a number of projects, which included creating a new library website. The school’s proprietary software at the time was not very user friendly and internet-based tools were still in their infancy.  However, the resulting website provided an updated look as well as easier access to the catalog and library databases for students and teachers. I knew an improved library website was essential to enhancing the library’s online presence, so I continued looking for tools that would help the school community in learning about and using the library’s resources.

Margaret Schoen is a Librarian at Newton South High School

Tricia London is the Library Director at the Avon Middle High School and a 2016 Super Librarian

​Cathy Collins is the Library Media Specialist at Sharon High School

The lights are dimmed as meditative nature sounds and gentle music drift through the air. I instruct all students to stand at the front of their mats, exhale and fold forward, symbolically shaking all stressful thoughts from their heads to the ground.  I then proceed to lead the small group through a “power” yoga series of poses. A powerful 45-minute session follows of flowing yoga poses designed to build strength and flexibility while releasing tension and anxiety. One might think I am describing a yoga class on the beach in Maui. If only that were true! The view from the frosty windows of my high school library’s computer lab is instead one of a snowy New England courtyard, and Yoga Club has just ended for the day.