School Library Musings: A Day in the Life of a Teacher-Librarian (Part 2)

Walking into the library at Casa Grande High school in California each morning just before 8:00 a.m., teacher-librarian Nathan Libecap is often greeted by 200+ students who have been there since the first bus dropped them off at 7:30. Under the watchful eye of library assistant Yvonne Glasscoe, these students are completing school work, reading, or just hanging out in the largest classroom in the school.

A faculty member for more than fourteen years, Nathan has a full day ahead teaching, preparing the library for instruction, and handling the behind-the-scenes work that a large, vibrant high school library demands. Having just completed a master's in school library and information technology (MSLIT) — a degree focused on K–12 libraries—he acknowledges his discovery of “how quickly the research realm is changing from even a few years ago, and how drastically different it is since the time I earned my first teaching credential almost twenty years ago.”

This discovery seems especially important as we begin taking another big tech leap, this time into AI and other large language models (LLMs) that have already created educational conundrums.

Says Nathan, “Learning basic research skills is more essential than ever.” He works closely with classroom colleagues to design both short- and long-term research projects using these new models, along with the most basic research skills: asking questions, validating resources, critiquing perspectives, and creating presentations.

Clearly, teacher-librarians today face not only the duties of managing and administering a large physical space containing books, computers, and other physical items, but also the duty of instructing in a way that supports, says Nathan, “a pluralistic society based on the free exchange of ideas and the equality of all people.”

Every day, he has countless interactions with students, guiding them in locating information, understanding assignments, and providing other support. He is equally available to teaching colleagues and often finds himself meeting with them informally in the library, hallways, and faculty room, as well as during department and faculty meetings.

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“When I am the lead instructor, the plan always starts with talking to the teacher. Often, collaboration begins with a request to ‘teach research.’ At this point in my professional career, I am very direct about what actual research entails—that way, I can help respond to the needs of the lesson. Broadly, research is broken down into three very distinct areas: choosing a researchable topic or question (super hard for students), identifying and evaluating information (also difficult), and producing the actual research paper (often outside of my teaching duties).”

Flexibility being key, Nathan will have many days where his schedule is jam-packed with whole-class instruction, and yet “even with classes in the library, we still juggle students coming in for individual needs—literal band-aids, figurative band-aids, emotional band-aids, self-esteem band-aids, book recommendations, Chromebook needs.”

And these band-aids are not just available to students but to all adults on campus as well. Nathan and Yvonne also provide a space and support for students who have a “free period or a headache that doesn’t rise to the level of going to the nurse or going home, etc., etc., etc.”

Nathan’s robust participation in multiple roles relies on a fully staffed library with an assistant—an arrangement he feels lucky to have.

“Like most assistants, Yvonne is extremely hardworking and does not like to be bored. [Author note: There is definitely no time for that!] She is full-time from 7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. She takes on lots of duties and always goes above and beyond. For example, she is pretty much the on-site 1:1 device administrator, doing much of the work for the technology department. She has an incredible memory for student faces and names, and has many regulars who like to come and talk with her before, during, and after school. She is artistic, where I am not, so creating displays or book promotions is a fun, collaborative effort because her talents far exceed my imagination.”

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Another role Nathan takes on is as the district’s “Librarian of Record,” satisfying state law requiring schools to have open school libraries overseen by credentialed staff. Because the elementary district in his town has no credentialed librarians, staff (called “Library Coordinators”) meet regularly with Nathan to discuss the basics of library circulation and to get help with book selection, weeding, and purchasing, thereby meeting district collection development policies. He will often serve as the go-between for library coordinators and their administrators, and he tries to visit each site at least twice a semester, mostly to address site-specific needs.

One of the biggest, most exhausting, and most exciting events Nathan participates in is producing an annual, all-day comic convention called LumaCON. Working alongside his teacher-librarian colleagues at the other secondary schools and the local public librarians, this all-city secondary school-created comic convention held at the local community center brings in thousands of young visitors and their families to interact with professional and emerging comic book artists and authors.

He was instrumental in developing it more than ten years ago and values this other path to the library. “LumaCON is a perfect example of what the integration of a fully staffed school library and public libraries can offer a community beyond the walls of the physical space.”

For Nathan, the importance of the library space grows each day. “More and more students are unfamiliar with what libraries have to offer when they enter high school, which creates more challenges and more opportunities. Every chance that the high school library could be the first library that students enter willingly, no matter the reason, is an opportunity to teach them what many of us are fortunate to already know: The library is not just books or computers, but a place for every individual to explore their world and how they might be able to leave their mark upon it.”

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