Mrs. London is our new school librarian at Abington Middle-High School. She spends lots of her time reading in and outside the library. Her favorite genres are historical fiction, and she’s always reading at least one book or listening to them while she drives or exercises.

She is not new to being a librarian or working in a school system. Before she made her transition to Abington, she worked at Avon Middle/High School for 13 years and more recently at Franklin High School for two years. She also has worked as a part-time teen and reference librarian when her kids were growing up. And she earned her master’s degree in Library and Information Science in 1988, as well as her teaching degree.

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Mrs. London is finding her transition to Abington to be going well. She loves Abington’s enthusiasm for reading and feels this school to be “just right” for her, saying that she finds everyone to be “very welcoming and kind.” She said, “I feel really blessed that Abington’s retired Librarian, Ms. Crowley volunteered to come in a number of times to show me the ropes and help get me up to speed. She is such a wonderful human being. I have to confess that I feel a little intimidated trying to fill her shoes.”

Mrs. London has spent her time working with various teachers on different things. She said that, “Everyday is always different and I love working with different people on many projects.” One of her very first appearances to students was when she did a Book Tasting. Mrs. London said “I have done Book Tastings for years.” For the Book Tasting, students came with their class to the library with their English teachers and sat at long tables. Mrs. London had pulled the books she loves and displayed them on the tables for students to “sample.” She puts on a silly chef hat and talked in a French accent as she showcased her favorites. Mrs. London said, “Book Tastings are a fun way to try to find a new book to read.”

Most of the books she displayed during the Book Tasting were books she had read or books heavily recommended. She said, “I read a lot, and I read widely. I’m always reading at least one book and also  listening to a book while I drive or exercise.”

Currently Mrs. London is listening to “Things You Save In a Fire” by Katherine Center, (adult fiction), but said that “The last two YA audiobooks I adored were “Patron Saints of Nothing” by Randy Ribay and “With the Fire on High” by Elizabeth Acevedo.” She also read and enjoyed a middle grade novel “Refugee” by Alan Gratz. She added, “If you haven’t read ‘The Hate U Give’ yet, you really need to.”

Although she reads a lot, Mrs. London believes that “life is too short to read books for pleasure that aren’t pleasurable.” She said if you dislike a book then it is okay not to finish it.

Besides the Book Tasting, Mrs. London has re-organized the books in the library to make them easier for students to find. She has been giving the library a makeover, and said, “During any free minutes Ms. Shaw [the library tutor] and I have, we work on our giant reorganization project.”

There was a lot of work to do, especially on the middle school side of the library. She said, “The middle school didn’t have a librarian for many years before the libraries were combined here in the new school so books are in really weird places. Our goal is to make the library an easy place to browse, kind of like Barnes and Noble, with all the books about a certain topic together in one place.”

Some of the changes she has made are that she introduced the Birthday Bear. She has displayed a list of upcoming birthdays on the front of her desk. She has also brought in The Happy Jar, which is for when students are stressed and need a little pick me up. If you are ever having a bad day, you can go to the library and receive a little pick me up from the jar that has a thoughtful message or an inspirational quote on it. She even recommends taking one and slipping it into someone’s locker or notebook to make them feel better.

There are other goals Mrs. London hopes to introduce to the school. One is to create an Academic Decathlon team.  “When I interviewed for the library position I talked with Dr. Sullivan about possibly starting a team in Abington next year.  It’s kind of like going to a track meet, but instead of competing against other schools in events like long jump and the fifty yard dash, students compete in ten subjects like economics, or art history.”

Besides keeping our library organized and welcoming, Mrs. London keeps busy outside of school. She is a choral singer and sings at a local church. She has sung in the Tanglewood Festival Chorus and the Boston Pops. She even has a concert coming up soon in the Masterworks. She has a family and a dog named Tobi who “stays fit with his love for hikes in the woods looking for chipmunks.”

To stay updated on any news regarding programs for the library, follow them on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. In January the library will be offering free downloadable audiobooks and e-books.