Hundreds of students pass through the media center every day, but only a few might understand the effort that goes into all parts of the library. Every book is carefully picked with students in mind. From the classical music to the crafts scattered across the tables, everything in the library is meticulously chosen to make a room full of books become something bigger.
Teacher Librarian Lucy Misetic is a jack of all trades. Wherever she is in the school’s media center, she aims to help anyone and everyone who needs it. Although books are one of Misetic’s main focuses, she also works to create a comfortable environment throughout the library.
“I would say my main job is support. I am a collaborator. I support teachers, I support students. I try to make a collection that supports things students might want or need, whether it’s for class or if it’s just for their own leisure reading,” Misetic said. “I also help connect to teachers’ curriculum and try to create lessons that connect to what they’re doing.”
Students who frequent the library say that Misetic holds both literature and people together in the building This includes staff members, classes passing through, or members of the Miller Reader Club, like Senior Isla Thorner who is interning with Misetic this semester.
“[Mrs. Misetic’s] always been a really big mentor my whole time at the high school. [She taught me] how to manage things that need to be done in the time given, how to also make things that you’re doing fun, and how to make your work or whatever you’re doing enjoyable,” Thorner said.
While Thorner cites the librarian as a mentor, Misetic says her career was influenced by a figure who was there her entire life. Misetic’s mother, Dr. Linda Gellert, has been an inspiration to her since she was little. Books are something that were passed down in Misetic’s family like heirlooms.
“When I was growing up, my mom never limited my reading. I came from a house of readers, my mom was a librarian. My mom didn’t care if it was appropriate or not, she just wanted me to read,” Misetic said.
Misetic has taken a page out of her mother’s book for NHS’s library, taking the time to curate, decorate, and turn the library into what she calls a safe space for all. Before she was a Teacher Librarian, Misetic taught English classes, she says she understands both the curriculum and the science behind research. Recently Misetic helped English teacher James Valmassoi’s classes learn how to get correct and useful research.
“Giving students the ability to actually know how to research well and find information that’s true is so important and librarians are the masters of that,” Valmassoi said.
Misetic says she tries to support every student and teacher at NHS by keeping up to date with both the current research on reading materials and books she orders. Although she says she always has a young adult novel on her nightstand to best relate to the students. Misetic also continues to push herself how she can better support the readers who visit her library.
“I’ve been reading a lot of studies recently about how the decline in reading is a decline in empathy,” Misetic said. “I think a lot of people don’t have empathy for other people and things that they’re going through because that’s what books create.”
After years of reading and learning, one of Misetic’s favorite quotes comes from Rudine Sims Bishop, a professor who calls herself the “mother of multicultural children’s literature.”
“Literature transforms human experience and reflects it back to us,” Bishop said. “In that reflection we can see our own lives and experiences as part of a larger human experience.”
Misetic believes that larger human connection is something she can, and wants, to help with.
“I [want to be] creating the patrons of the future,” Misetic said. “Libraries can really do so much and they are so much more than just books.”
