top of page

A One Woman Wonder

I had the opportunity to visit Dover Middle School today to see some 7th grade book talks, check out their space, and get some valuable feedback and insight from their librarian Sheryl Powers.

But first... a little history.

When Dover Middle School was constructed in 2000, it was designed with a core of administrative offices at the front on the first floor and the school's library directly overhead on the second floor. On each floor, two grade specific wings come off this central core separating the 4 grade levels. A third floor houses art rooms and some computer labs but cannot be reached from every staircase. Within a few years of initial construction, the building needed 2 additions at each end which added a total of 8 additional classroom spaces. When it first opened, each grade level wing had a small teacher preparation room and a small teacher break room. With the population of Dover growing immensely over the past 10 years, these "extra" teacher preparation and lunch spaces are gone due to the need for more rooms to provide student services. Dover Middle School is virtually busting at the seams and the overflow has landed in the library.

What does this mean for library services at DMS? This means librarian Sheryl Powers has no official "office" or work space that isn't separated from the main library area. It means the large storage areas with built in cabinets meant for library services are taken over by office supplies, kitchen supplies, and other such items. It means a constant, steady parade of teachers coming to make copies, use the paper cutter, drop off laminating, and get their snacks/lunches from one of the few refrigerators in the building to which they have access.

Sheryl takes it all in stride and makes the most of the space she has been given. While she could desperately need an assistant, it just isn't in the budget for Dover Schools at this time. She has been there 4 years and still hasn't really had a chance to go through/organize all of the materials that have been dumped for storage in the rooms available to her. When I think of all that she is responsible for, Sheryl is a pretty amazing one woman show.

Sheryl's responsibilities include: maintaining the book collection, circulation, collecting returned books from the bins located in each grade level wing, signing up teachers for the times she isn't teaching classes, laminating, assisting students and staff who drop in with questions, hosting paraprofessionals who come in to work in small groups or one on one with students, hosting various classes who come in to do book talks, planning and executing two Scholastic Book Fairs, and planning her limited instructional time with 5th - 8th graders. Sheryl gets one session each week for one quarter with each set of students she teaches. She has developed projects at each grade level for this time: 5th graders work on more introductory lessons of what the DMS library offers, 6th graders create an infographic using Easel.ly, 7th graders make a "Fakebook" account of an historical figure, and 8th graders create a website using Weebly or Wix.

While I was there, I got to see a class of 7th graders come in and use one of the larger spaces to give book talks to their classmates. The book talks can be about any book they have read recently and include the genre, a reading of a short passage, and why they would or would not recommend it to others. The students used a set of upholstered chairs to create a space off to the side for their presentations. While I know YALSA has some great guidelines for how to best organize library space for teen users, Sheryl is limited by the space and funding she has available. Every student who walked through the library during my two hours there was excited, engaged, and eager to find their next good read. I know Sheryl is doing her best to make an inviting, versatile, comfortable space for the students and staff of Dover Middle School.

And she's doing it as a One Woman Wonder.

bottom of page