Luke Steere is the librarian at Wilson Middle School in Natick, MA.
Let us inaugurate “From the Vault” with a look back to one of a the profiles in “Meet More Members of the Executive Board,” which ran November 2002. It is a profile of Mrs. Fontes. She is of course “Pat” to us, and now to me, too, but in November of 2002 I was only a month-old freshman at Nashoba Regional High School, interested in skateboarding and little else. Nashoba is the high school where Mrs. Fontes would eventually become the librarian.
Pat’s reflection below mentions her job as a part-time aide at a base library, a moment in the midwest saga which she happens upon after getting married. After graduating from Nashoba Regional, I went to UMass Lowell to be a journalist, but it was my time as a part-time aide, at the reference desk at O’Leary Library, where I realized I enjoyed the mix of service and “reading and research,” as Pat puts it. I also worked at a non-public school while getting my masters just like Pat does.
When she and I talked at a MSLA Exec Board Meeting last June, she walked right up to me, recognizing a new forum co-editor, and explained how all the award winners from the last year were required to publish an article, and if we didn’t have a list going, she would be happy to provide one. All business— I nodded lamely and scribbled down “Ask Reba awards… ?” on my notebook. Then I said: “Mrs. Fontes, I graduated from Nashoba, class of 2006, and you were my librarian.” Her eyes widened and she smiled, warming to the idea and then excitedly spoke of one of my peers— another ‘06 graduate, Hannah, who was is now a children’s librarian not far from Nashoba regional. Two ain’t bad Pat! Thank you! And thank you for your continued hard work with the MSLA, helping make “learning…such a pleasure again.”
When she and I talked at a MSLA Exec Board Meeting last June, she walked right up to me, recognizing a new forum co-editor, and explained how all the award winners from the last year were required to publish an article, and if we didn’t have a list going, she would be happy to provide one. All business— I nodded lamely and scribbled down “Ask Reba awards… ?” on my notebook. Then I said: “Mrs. Fontes, I graduated from Nashoba, class of 2006, and you were my librarian.” Her eyes widened and she smiled, warming to the idea and then excitedly spoke of one of my peers— another ‘06 graduate, Hannah, who was is now a children’s librarian not far from Nashoba regional. Two ain’t bad Pat! Thank you! And thank you for your continued hard work with the MSLA, helping make “learning…such a pleasure again.”