Librarian Interview: Beech Hill Elementary School

 This is the first in a series of four posts about interviews I've done with some local school librarians. Each of the librarians spoke with me about one of the six AASL competencies from the national school library standards. I am so lucky to have been able to interview these five librarians. 

My first post is highlighting the work of Jeni Nix at Beech Hill Elementary School in Summerville, SC. Ms. Nix taught 4th grade before becoming a librarian and has served as an officer for SCASL. Ms. Nix was South Carolina's School Librarian of the Year in 2020 and served as my cooperating librarian for my internship this fall. She is a wealth of experience and knowledge!

After spending time with Ms. Nix in her library over the course of 5 school days, I chose to interview her on the Include competency from the AASL standards.

When she spoke on the competency in broad terms, it was clear Ms. Nix still approaches her library planning with the mindset of a teacher. She works to include all students by using a variety of modalities within all of her library lessons. She is extremely cognizant of the differences between a 1st grader and a 4th grader, while also remembering that they are both still children. She uses movement, group discussion, music, and a variety of text genres to support student literacy. 

Ms. Nix also works to include all staff members in library planning and programming. She has strong relationships with teachers across the building. As a member of the leadership team, she is inclusive in her support of school initiatives and thinking about how the library can support these with its unique position. She also works with her teachers to be inclusive of their curriculum and to find new ways to better support the skills and standards they are teaching in their classrooms. All of this is evident when spending time in Ms. Nix's library.

Another way Ms. Nix focuses on the Include competency is by using Titlewise Analyses to analyze the library's collection in terms of diversity. She does a diversity audit at the beginning of each school year to compare the needs of her student population with the materials in her library's collection. She works to be inclusive of all languages, social needs, developmental needs, and cultural needs of her students. This is also where she sees the most challenges in meeting this competency. Ms. Nix noted that with so many challenges to materials and the uptick in talks of book banning, it is challenging as an elementary librarian to meet the needs of her students while also vetting age appropriate resources.