Librarian Interview #2
Gaelynn Jenkins
Riverside Middle School
Greenville, SC
Interview date - November 2, 2020
I
visited the Riverside Middle School library media center on Monday, November 2,
2020. Gaelynn Jenkins is the librarian
and she is very committed to serving her students and striving for an exemplary
library.
"Getting them in allows you to build a relationship with them."
In talking
with Mrs. Jenkins and observing the Riverside Middle School library, I found
several examples of her commitment to the foundational standard of Explore. Mrs. Jenkins has created a Makerspace in a corner
of her library. The space is in a corner to the side of the circulation desk. It is in a section that is naturally set
apart by the layout of the media center space.
Several large posters hang high up on the wall. All of the posters have the same blue and
white color scheme. A large bookshelf on
the side wall is filled with “How to” books, so the books are available to the
students as they visit the Makerspace.
The space also has two 3D printers, a storage cabinet for the 3D
printing filaments, a sewing machine, a button maker, LEGOs, long tables for
students to set up and work on projects, and a wall of bins with “bits” a particular
brand of circuit parts that can be combined in a variety of ways. “It’s interesting to see how the kids gravitate
to the Makerspace, when they come into the library. We see kids come to that area. Come over and get things out. And it’s kids who did not come into the
library before.” Just getting the students
to come in the doors of the library is a success, in Mrs. Jenkins’
opinion. “Getting them in allows you to
build a relationship with them. And
then, maybe you can mention, ‘Have your thought about reading this book, or
this magazine?’”
Mrs. Jenkins described her program to me, as well as the “best
project experience that we’ve ever had.”
At Riverside Middle School, she hosts a Library Club, which is voluntary
for the students. Several years ago, her
group addressed a design challenge from Digital Promise Global. The students were challenged to address
global problems with a local solution.
The students had seen some Little Free Library projects, and they wanted
to modify the idea. They wanted to put
together the idea of a Little Free Library with a food pantry. Their idea was to address food insecurity and
education at the same time. The students
named their project “Read and Feed.”
Mrs. Jenkins described their work on the project. “The kids did the work,” she said. They were in a group, and some of the
students were in charge of making posters and publicizing the project. Some of them were in charge of collecting
donations for the food pantry, or for the books. Some of them were in charge of designing the
prototype. The kids learned
teamwork. And Digital Promise Global saw
their work and wanted to come and help the kids build it.” Mrs. Jenkins said that this project was one
that she felt the most proud of in her library.
COVID has brought changes to her library space. Her Makerspace area has been taken up by
mobile carts that now charge extra devices for the school. Mrs. Jenkins says, “I am trying to think of
how to keep this going despite COVID,” she says. One way she is trying to do that is by
assembling “to-go” bags for activities. Mrs.
Jenkins and her library assistant research science experiments and order
materials, which they will assemble in a take-home bag so that students will be
able to work on some experiments at home.
Her first plan was for students to make their own “bouncy balls.” Mrs. Jenkins has also added websites and
videos to the library website for a virtual Makerspace experience.
Mrs. Jenkins’ commitment to involving the middle school
students in the life of the library extends to encouraging the students to
continue to explore books, even when they cannot come into the library because
of COVID rules. Mrs. Jenkins developed
an Instabook form for her library. Students
can look online for a book, put a hold on the book in Destiny, and Mrs. Jenkins
or her assistant will deliver the book to the student at school. Mrs. Jenkins
knows that some students may be intimidated by the process of placing a hold on
a book, so she also goes to classes in the school. She has a selection of books on a cart. Each book has a short “blurb” on the
front. In their class, the students can
take a book off the cart if they are interested in it. The students write down their names and the
name of the book that they chose on pieces of paper, and Mrs. Jenkins checks
the book out to them when she returns to the library.
Mrs. Jenkins has an obvious passion for her library. She has a collection of new furniture in the
main library space. There are
wavy-topped tables and bright chairs that can be easily moved, as well as
higher tables with pop-up ports for charging.
She told me a little bit about her furniture. She says that she has been in the process of
a multi-year upgrade for the furniture. “We
are doing it in stages, “she explained. She
has received some funds from the school’s PTA.
“The new tables are able to nest,” she explained. “It makes it easier to move them and change
the space.”
(Seating areas in the library)
Mrs. Jenkins is also committed to serving her teachers. She has seen the stress placed on teachers
with the changes in school schedules and COVID protocols. Working from an idea from another teacher in
Charleston, she has created a GoogleDoc for the grades and subjects taught at
her school. The document has links to
resources for each standard – for example, the National Geographic website, SC
DISCUS, or the Library of Congress. She has also customized Destiny for her
students and teachers by building a bibliography and collections for students
in her building.
Our discussion of the National Library Standards changed to
address the librarian as learner. Mrs.
Jenkins lamented the fact that, “there is not a district person over libraries
who is a librarian,” in Greenville County.
Mrs. Jenkins described the situation.
“There has been zero professional development from the district on the
new standards.” Mrs. Jenkins related
that the school district has liaisons from elementary schools and secondary
schools who serve as representatives to the school district. Mrs.
Jenkins asserted her belief that advocacy is important for librarians. “I have to convince everybody else that this
is important,” she said. One positive
thing that has emerged from the situation surrounding COVID-19 is that middle
school librarians in the school district have scheduled virtual meetings on
Fridays, when students are not in school buildings. “We’ve gotten to talk,” she says, something
that had not happened very often pre-COVID.
As described previously, Mrs. Jenkins is moving to the end
of her furniture upgrade project. She is
already planning for her next project.
She wants to conduct a diversity audit for her library. “It’s intimidating,” admits Mrs. Jenkins. To prepare, she watched a Future Ready
Librarians webinar, and the says, “There are a couple of different blogs that I’ve
been saving.” The difficulty with such a
project includes, “How do you know what is in a book without getting into it
yourself? You are dependent on some
level on the opinions of others.” She
also has considered, “How deep do I want to go?
Will I just look at authors, content, characters . . ?”
I felt like I took in a wealth of information from Mrs.
Jenkins and the Riverside Middle School media center. I kept grabbing my notebook to write down
things to think about later, or to check out later. One such recommendation was netGalley, at
which librarians can look at digital galleys of books with pending publications. Mrs. Jenkins also two blogs, the Library Voice by
Shannon McClintock Miller and the blog of Barrow Media Center, Expect the Miraculous. Also, there is a website
devoted to hashtags best-hashtags.com (for use with your social media accounts). Speaking of social media, Mrs. Jenkins also
recommended hootsuite.com, which lets the user post to Twitter, Instagram and
Facebook at the same time. Lastly, Mrs.
Jenkins told me about two festivals that I would like to check out once lives
get more back to normal. The first is
YALFest, which takes place in Charleston, and the second is ReadUP
Greenville. The ReadUP Greenville
festival is questionable since the funding has been reduced.
I definitely enjoyed my time at the Riverside Middle School library
with Mrs. Gaelynn Jenkins. I feel like I
learned so much. It is so valuable to
visit other librarians and see what is going on in other libraries.
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