With the new school year approaching, the Briar Woods High School administration team knew they needed to make some positive changes to the school library. This meant, adding two new amazing librarians to make their mark on Briar Woods and to reestablish the library/media center. And even though they haven’t been here for very long, Ms. Everett and Ms. Taylor have greatly influenced the library, and the school overall.
Ms. Everett had been a librarian at a middle school for five years, and before that she was a management consultant. Ms. Taylor had been a librarian at Parkview High School for five years, and before that she was an El teacher. They both decided to come to Briar Woods due to the fact that there had been no librarians in previous years, and they wanted to “sort of restart the library program”(Everett). Both librarians also mentioned that they wanted to have a fresh start, and that Briar had a lot to offer for them.
This may be their first year at Briar Woods, but they have both already made huge contributions to the school library. As for changes made to the library, Ms. Everett stated, “Well, I don’t think there’s anything that is in the same place where it was before. So we’ve created this sort of zone, so all the seating is in one place. We’ve tried to create some different spaces for students to either work quietly or to collaborate or just relax. We also generified the library, so we organized all the books by type, because before it was just kind of all one big thing.” And it is very evident from all the students and faculty members that are in the library each day, doing so many different things.
Both Ms. Everett and Ms. Taylor love their jobs as librarians. They say that it is very fun getting to meet new people and spread their love of literature. Ms. Everett says, “For me, having been in the classroom, I really think its sort of like all the best parts of teaching. You get to do the lessons and work with students, but I also get to promote reading and my love of books I get to share with students. But it also gives us the opportunity to really build relationships with students and get to know them on a more personal level. And my background as a researcher, so it’s my jam, it’s what I find really interesting and so being able to share with students is really important to me.” Ms. Taylor mentioned how she also loves meeting new people and forming relationships because she is new.
Just by entering the Briar Woods High School Library, it is crystal clear the impact that the new librarians Ms. Everett and Ms. Taylor has had on it. They have made it such a welcoming and fun environment, despite only being at Briar Woods for a couple months.
