As the sun rises over Revere High School and students flood through the doors, the high school’s librarian Cynthia Beshara prepares for her day. While the first students begin to walk into the library, several make their way to the main desk. Some are looking for books, others preparing for appointments made with Beshara. As the first period begins, these students will have returned to their classes with their new resources and information. Throughout the day, even more students will drop into the library to visit Beshara. Even after school, Beshara monitors the tutoring sessions while meeting students and teachers.

Beshara has repeated this process for the past fourteen years at the high school. Aside from book recommendations, Beshara also does book talks, technology appointments and finds online resources for the staff and students to use.

Although the media center at Revere High School has changed over the years, one thing has remained the same throughout, and that is class interaction for projects and assignments inside it.

A big part of being a librarian is instructing classes during projects on how to use the technology available to them or reinforcing a teacher’s instruction.

“One of the major things I do to support literacy is book talks. With the book talks, I highlight different books that we have available that fit in with that particular assignment that the teacher is giving. Classes come in here because they want to learn about a particular database and learn how to navigate through that database and use that resource to fulfill a class assignment or project,” Beshara said.

For a librarian, Beshara needs to know every book the library has and where to find it so she can give students the resources they need to succeed whenever possible. Aside from books, being tech-savvy with the school’s online resources is a big part of the job for Beshara. 

Freshman Ben Eberhardt often utilizes the library during his free time as a student.

“I use the library as a quiet room to focus and zone into school assignments. Any work that I was unable to complete, I would go to the library as my teacher allowed, and work to finish up the assignment” Eberhardt said.

The library is not just used for normal school classes. Prominently, the National Honor Society meets in the library. The BREATHE initiatives and teacher PLC day meetings are held in the library. Monthly staff meetings and school board meetings are held in the library as well. Beshara’s new job would introduce her to many multifaceted aspects of being a librarian from day one.

“Being a librarian has so many different roles and responsibilities. There was a learning curve. Despite all my bookwork and education, there was quite a lot to learn about the job itself and all of the different responsibilities I had. The teaching part came naturally because I already had some years of classroom experience, so I just naturally went on that trajectory when working with classes. The other pieces and components of being a library media specialist took a couple of years to get into a good groove and feel like I had a grasp on all of the different roles and responsibilities,” Beshara said.

Beshara’s first year as a librarian did not come easily. Beshara learned much of her job through simple trial and error, but that does not mean Beshara wasn’t up to the challenge.

“The librarian retired, and then I took over, so she was there for me to reach out if I had questions. I did an internship here, so I had a little bit of background knowledge of how the library media center operated at the school. Then I actually did part of my internship at Richfield [Elementary School] (formerly Hillcrest). I walked in with somewhat of a foundation, but just doing the job day to day was my learning experience. But I certainly did have the previous librarian to call or email if I did have any questions that I couldn’t figure out on my own,” Beshara said.

Before Beshara became the Revere High School librarian, she was an English teacher at Timken High School in Canton, then an English teacher at Revere for the next seven years until the librarian job opened up. Bashara enjoys many parts of her job, but her favorite part is the variety every day has to it.

“My favorite part of the job is that every day is so different. Working with so many different people and how it is day in and day out, and just being in education in general is. Every day flies by, and before I know  the day is over, and then the end of the week.” Beshara said.

The school library maintains a relationship with the close neighbor Richfield Library. Besides featuring poems from the district on their story trail, Richfield has recently been in contact with Beshara about diversifying their collection. Barnes and Noble is another community partner of the Revere High School library. When not involved with book fairs, they are often giving discounted prices to students for required reading for the English curriculum. Freshman Colin Jocek takes this opportunity each year to buy new books as an oldest child.

“Since I’m the oldest in my family, I don’t have sibling hand-me-downs to use in English. So I can buy new books and get the excuse to go to Barnes and Noble” Jocek said. 

A common trope in schools is the lack of understanding between grade levels and faculty. Being a librarian lets Beshara work with every member of the school and gives her unique knowledge surrounding this common trope.

“Being a librarian has opened up my eyes to the student body as a whole. Before when I was teaching certain grade levels that’s what my focus was on, the specific grade level… Now my eyes have been opened to students at all stages and within the curriculum across all content areas, and then the expectations of what that is going to look like from ninth grade to tenth grade. These grades can show me curriculum differences and help determine what materials would best suit them for projects and assignments” Beshara said.

Through being a librarian, Beshara has been able to observe the differences between grades, besides the obvious age gap. This knowledge helps Beshara understand better what resources would be most suitable for assignments and how the students should use them in their content areas. Beshara is also knowledgeable about the requirements needed to work as a librarian.

“I would start with the degree requirements. You need to get a four-year degree, then you need to get a master’s in library science. There’s a difference between a public librarian and a college librarian versus a school librarian. But I would certainly encourage them to follow their passion, if it’s something that they would want to do then it is a career worth pursuing” Beshara said.

Being a librarian, Beshara understands what a person should do and is interested in pursuing a successful career as a librarian. 

“As far as a school librarian, you’d need to enjoy reading, you absolutely have to be able to have good intrapersonal skills, because that is at the forefront of being a librarian…. Because you need to be able to work with your colleagues and your students” Beshara said.

Beshara enjoys and is proud of her job as the librarian for Revere High School in the current climate of the country.

“In a time when we’re seeing so much funding taken away from libraries in general it is an honor to be able to fulfill that role in this district. And I am blessed to have that support to continue to do this job, that ultimately benefits the staff and student body as a whole in the High School” Beshara said.

When Beshara is not at school she is taking care of her nineteen-month-old daughter at home or reading a good book and preparing for the next day’s challenges.