OHS Librarians attend library-enhancing conference
By Makenzy Holm
Photo of Heather Shuck (left) and Melinda Gallagher (right) provided by Heather Shuck
Librarians work extremely hard for their patrons, whether it be an elementary librarian, high school librarian or even public librarians. Librarians do the most for the people of their community and Owasso High School librarians Heather Shuck and Melinda Gallagher are no exception as they do plentiful duties for the school.
“We make sure that we have books that represent every single person in our school and more than anything I think it is just a place for people to come and feel at home and more secure and relaxed. They can read, maybe play a game or get a snack, but it’s just a place for everybody,” shares Gallagher, the librarian on East Campus.
Gallagher and Shuck spend everyday making sure the library books and other resources are in peak condition so that everyone can get a chance to use them.
“I am a program administrator, a collaborative partner and my job is to collaboratively teach classes with teachers, [and to] teach students research skills,” added Shuck, the librarian on West Campus. “I coordinate all types of information whether it be print or digital, databases, books or audiobooks.”
Both librarians personally curate the entire collection, making sure each new resource or book that enters the library is exactly what students need.
“I also [write] a lot of reviews of books, I mean I have to read a ton of reviews and that takes a lot of time. We can’t just buy a book, we need to read the reviews and see how it fits into our collection with our population and with our curriculum,” Gallagher mentions.
Along with buying books, Gallagher is able to run a year round fundraiser for the library and now both she and Shuck are using games and prizes to entice students to visit either library.
“Another big thing we do is marketing, like right now is National Library Month, so we are doing all kinds of games and giving candy and doing things to get kids in the library. I spend a lot of my time on Kaffe Libro, which is how I buy all of my stuff for the IDEA Lab and some of the furniture [in the library] that kids like to sit on,” voices Gallagher.
Shuck and Gallager don’t just stay in their own bubble, they also join forces with other librarians across the district, state and even country to provide the best possible resources for their students.
“I’m involved in a lot of outside organizations to have peers that I can work with. I started a group called TASSL which is Tulsa Secondary School Librarians and we can call them up at any point,” Gallagher states.
Gallagher and Shuck also recently attended a week-long conference in Texas where they met many other librarians and were able to talk to some of the book vendors and learn more ideas on how to bring more students into the library.
“The goal is to enhance your skills and learn how to be a better librarian, to meet with vendors and make contacts. It’s really nice to be able to ask questions. For example, … our EBSCO [has some issues] right now and I was able to talk to a real life human who said they could help me fix the problem,” explains Shuck.
At these conferences, they also love meeting new authors, especially Shuck who makes sure to take plenty of pictures with many different prominent authors.
“If we’re lucky, sometimes there are authors there and that’s probably my favorite part, to be able to hear from them. … I love to pass that on to the students. When they get really excited about a book, I keep a set of pictures in my desk of the different authors that I met, and I like to be like, ‘Hey I’ve got pictures of Neal Shusterman winning a Sequoyah medal, do you want to see them?’” Shuck exclaimed.
Both librarians do so much for our school and deserve to be recognized for their hard work and dedication. Next time you are on either campus, make sure to stop by and say hello to our wonderful librarians!