Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Not long before school was out, I had the opportunity to sit in on a district-wide librarians' meeting. Librarians are a special breed of educator. An article entitled, “The Nonnegotiable Role of School Librarians” describes the essential function of libraries and librarians in public education, as the “hub of the school” in terms of learning.
Clovis schools have the most amazing group of librarians. All of our librarians come from rich and varied backgrounds, bringing with them a wide range of skills and experiences to directly benefit students. They work closely with teachers to complement and supplement what is taking place in the classroom, as well as instilling a love of reading in students.
Our secondary librarians — the three middle schools, the CHS Freshman Academy, and Clovis High School — are not only certified teachers as well as librarians, but they also have their master's degrees in related fields.
“So … librarians don't just check in and out books?” some might ask. Hardly. In addition to the regular responsibilities of librarians, most teach specialty classes, such as digital-storytelling, technology skills, makerspaces, crafts, and more.
It's easy to see a librarian's job is far more than checking in and out books. In addition to all of the above, they also offer targeted trainings for teachers and/or students in a variety of ways to most expeditiously facilitate access to information of every imaginable sort.
Librarians collaborate with teachers in an ongoing fashion throughout the school year to ensure needed resources are available. Librarians curate vast amounts of materials, from reference materials, to all genres of books, media, electronic resources, staying abreast of new resources.
Even with the pandemic lock-down of this past year, our librarians sailed on without missing a beat; they created online story times; converted hard copies of info commonly used to digital versions to easily share with students; developed and shared a whole array of online resources with teachers and students, and more. They offered curbside library book check-out services following the health guidelines at the time.
With technology permeating so many aspects of education, it's also transformed libraries, often even changing the name of the location from library to media center, or something similar. Do librarians balk? Of course not. They quietly continue on their way, adding new skills to their toolkits, whatever is needed to make information more accessible to their patrons.
A quote I came across by Seth Godin nailed it: “The librarian isn't a clerk who happens to work in a library. A librarian is a data hound, a guide, a Sherpa, and a teacher. The librarian is the interface between reams of data and the untrained but motivated user.”
Cindy Kleyn-Kennedy is the instructional technology coordinator for the Clovis Municipal Schools and can be reached at:
