Carson High librarian to speak at Democratic tele-luncheon

Featured speaker at Monday's Democratic tele-luncheon will be Carson High School librarian Ananda Campbell, who will describe how she and other district librarians, in collaboration with city and state library staffs, transitioned Carson City's students to remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This process has had a profound impact upon how students relate to their teachers, classmates and school support staffs. As Ananda herself has said, “Transitioning to remote learning has been an interesting endeavor for us all, one which brings many lessons, and will, I am sure, create a paradigm shift in the way we school library in the future.”

It should surprise nobody that school librarians have taken a central role in making remote learning work in Carson City. In a 2017 Senator Square column, this is how Phil Brady described the role librarians have come to play in the education process:

The Carson City School District highly values school libraries as it promotes literacy through funding a full-time library staff at each school, and certified teacher-librarians at CHS and the middle schools.

Many amazing opportunities are going on in the CHS school library. The CHS Library is piloting the Nevada Teacher-Librarian Evaluation framework and transitioning from a “library” to a collaborative learning commons.

“The instruction looks different than in a typical classroom, and my specialty areas are a mix of information literacy, reading, tech support, professional development, and research,” said CHS Librarian Ananda Campbell.

The library is literally and figuratively the heart of CHS; students use the space to study, research, read, socialize, work collaboratively, and find a quiet space, not to mention how often teachers schedule their classes to listen to a ‘Book Talk’ with Campbell.

Recently, Campbell petitioned the PTSA and received a donation of beautiful lounge chairs. Moreover, everyone at CHS is thanking the National Honor Society, in association with United Blood Services, for their generous donation of HotSpots to the CHS Library.

These devices can be loaned to CHS students with no internet connection at home to provide additional levels of support for academic success and college and career readiness. Asked why she chose library science as a career, Campbell said, “My heart is in teaching, and to be a part of students' learning and growing is rewarding because I have loved every age and every subject from 1st grade to adult learners.”

Campbell went on to say, “When I transitioned from a classroom teacher to the library, I was worried about losing that personal connection; thankfully, the worry was misguided, and I actually have more opportunity to connect with the students and to be a resource for them in different ways.” About CHS, Campbell says, “I love what I do and the people I work with, and I'm so lucky to be in this position; I'm not sure I can brag on all the awesome students adequately.”

Ananda recently described the scope of her current duties as follows: “Supporting classroom teachers, staff, and students by joining digital classroom discussions and read alouds, curating digital resources for teachers, collecting literacy resources for reading, research, and remote learning, tech support, Chromebook support, processing books, annual reporting, sharing community resources, educational technology coaching and staff support, managing student hotspots for home internet, assisting with nutrition and social programs. Until we are able to connect with students in person, the CHS Cyber-Library is staying as busy as ever, and we are grateful to have the opportunity to continue to support our community virtually.”

Sponsored by the Democratic Men's Committee, this event is scheduled for noon on Monday, January 25th, and will be held online via Zoom teleconference due to the restricted availability of in-person venues. Those wishing to be on distribution for these Zoom links can email Rich Dunn, Men's Committee Events Coordinator, at richdunn@aol.com.