What comes to mind when you think of a librarian? Knowledgeable? Experienced? Friendly? Our new AHS librarian, Ms. Ogle, is just that and more! This school year, AHS had the honor of introducing a new librarian named Ms. Ogle to our campus, who will be working alongside our other librarian, Ms. Lewis. Recently, I was able to sit down with her and get to know her better.

Ms. Ogle is from the Central Valley of California. More specifically, she comes from a small town outside Fresno named Tulare. Tulare has a population of about 63,000 people, which is slightly larger than Arcadia’s population of 58,000. Previously in Tulare, Ms. Ogle was an English teacher for several years and then a high school librarian for three years. In her free time, she enjoys singing and participating in musical theater, which she describes as Broadway type shows similar to the work that the AHS Drama Department performs.

When asked her feelings about being a librarian at AHS, she responded that “it is very different all around.” She feels that the library, school, and town are different from what she has experienced before, but in good ways. Here, she enjoys that the AHS library is “used every day, all day, by tons of people” and that she is helping by contributing something important to the campus and community through her job. In addition, she enjoys getting to know and help students, teachers, and other people on campus. “Arcadia is as small as Tulare,” Ms. Ogle says, but since Arcadia is right next to its neighboring cities rather than being a few miles away as Tulare is, it feels “more crowded” but also more exciting.

On the topic of projects and ambitions, she explained that her first project was to make the library her own because “as a teacher librarian, this is my classroom.” Thus, she has put up displays, decorations, and more around the library to make it fun and inviting. She is still getting to know everything here and says that once she learns the needs of the students, she will be able to cater to those needs and make the library as useful as it can be. In addition to this, Ms. Ogle is trying to make lunchtime in the library more academic instead of just being a social time because she wants to give those who want to do work at lunchtime the ability to do so. She likes that often times, the AHS library is lively, with everyone “having a good time” yet still being very studious and getting work done.

Ms. Ogle would like to reinforce that there is no food allowed in the library. As a message to AHS students, she wants to say that “even though you may feel like you have no time, reading is one of the best things you can do for your future, so try to make time to do fun reading.” Thank you, Ms. Ogle, for that insightful message, for all the work you have done for AHS thus far, and the work that you continue to do as our new librarian! We wish you luck and are glad that you are with us!

Photo by ARIANA PARIZADEH