With the 25-26 school year underway, a new librarian has joined Atherton’s staff. Susan Gasaway is Atherton’s new Librarian, or the Library Media Specialist, taking the place of Ms. Waters. Gasaway was drawn to Atherton because of the academics and the importance of the arts. She was also drawn to Atherton because of the faculty and the school spirit.
“I was drawn to Atherton because of the academics, and the tradition of excellence here. I like the fact that the arts are very important here as well… And the faculty and staff are top notch,” said Gasaway.
Gasaway was not always a librarian, before Atherton she taught history for 12 years at PRP, and was also an academic instructional coach for the district.
Most of her career has not been in a library, but Gasaway has always loved to read. As a librarian now, she wants to encourage students to have the same experiences she’s had when reading.
“It was an escape for me when I was a teenager and it definitely helped me grow as an adult. And I wanted to encourage students to have those same experiences, with books,” said Gasaway.
Gasaway enjoys her job as a librarian here at Atherton, partly due to the loose schedule she has. She enjoys seeing different students and teachers in the library and being able to help them with their library needs.
“I don’t know if there is a typical day. I mean, every day is different and that’s one of the things that I like about this job. We always have students in here, teachers needing help,” said Gasaway.
Since each day has a loose schedule, Gasaway has time to start executing some of her goals for the library. Now the library is organized by genre, and Gasaway is excited to start updating the collection.
“’I’m definitely spending a lot of time listening to update the collection. I have a lot of books that probably need to be mended, because it is a very old collection, and some [books] are in really bad shape.”
The library is a huge part of the school, however, Gasaway believes it should have a more important role in the school. She also believes the library should be open for anyone to develop community and be a constant place where people can come to connect.
“And this is where all the activities should be and it should be open for kids to come, obviously during the day, and faculty members to learn and to develop community here,” said Gasaway. “This will be a constant place where people come just to connect with different groups of other people.”
If Gasaway could share one message with readers and library visitors it would be for everyone to visit the library.
“Just come see us. I mean, libraries aren’t always stuffy places where it’s supposed to be completely quiet all the time. Obviously there’s an element of that, but we like to have fun. We libraries should be a place of community, where you can make connections with other people, and it’s not always quiet, and that’s okay,” Gasaway said.
