by | Presley Crenwelge
Staff Reporter
After 10 years as the school librarian, Janelle Schnacker will shelve her service to the school as she leaves her position. For the past 16 years, the social studies teacher turned librarian has been able to watch the school evolve. Because of family matters, Schnacker will take a step away from the school where she has helped build culture and community, but her time and contributions go beyond those almost 20 years.
“As a student here at MacArthur it was interesting, obviously I’m an alumnus, my dad worked here, all my brothers went here, and I spent my entire educational career so far here at Mac,” Schnacker said. “The interesting thing was when I was a student here the campus was being completely rebuilt, so oftentimes students of alumni from Mac will come on to campus and they reminisce on the way the old campus used to be, well the old campus was a construction site.” She recalls. “When I think about Mac I don’t think about physical building or location, I think about the feeling of community. And so to me, that feeling will never go away, and so in a lot of ways I don’t feel like I’m leaving.”
After being at MacArthur all these years, as a student and as a teacher, she’s shaped the library to become something more than just a room with books.
“The cool thing is when you work in the library it’s not a matter of building lasting memories, it’s really building future opportunities,” Schnacker said. “Since you get to work with so many different teachers and you build things instructionally, programming for students, I think that’s what I get more excited about. Looking back, the areas where I’m most proud of are really refocusing our library as an instructional space so that it’s seen as the largest classroom on campus but also being a dynamic space that can change to the needs of our students as they arise.”
Schnacker has nothing but pride for the program she’s crafted, and although it’s bittersweet to start this new chapter of her life, she will always view the school library with admiration.
“Looking back at our vision and mission statements, our vision for the MacArthur Library is empowerment through exploration. I’m really proud of the fact that we’ve moved forward all these years with our library within that vision and we never strayed from that,” Schnacker said. “We’ve put students first with the idea of preparing them not just for the real world, but to pursue the real world as they want it to be for themselves.”
The tools and resources from the library have not only benefited students but staff as well. During the spring lockdown of 2020, school was completely online and digital, but luckily the library had prepared teachers for this transition.
“When I took over the library space 10 years ago I wanted to obviously have the dynamic physical space but I also wanted people to realize that the library can exist beyond the library walls, and really harness the power of digital resources, and I think that the success of that mission was probably most evident during COVID-19,” Schnacker said. “I felt like our teachers were probably as best prepared as they could be, our teachers weren’t asking ‘Oh my gosh what am I gonna do?’ they were emailing me saying, ‘Hey remind me what’s the best way to use this resource?’”
The transition was rough on a lot of students, but the library helped prepare teachers to make it easier for everyone.
“They knew what they were doing and they really harnessed the potential of that, so I felt like we were really well prepared to pivot and manage that transition to digital instruction. And I’m really proud of what our program was able to provide for that time period.”
Since the library has been shaped and constructed this way for so many years, concerns may come to light about the way things will continue, but Schnacker isn’t worried.
“Whether it stays the same as the way that I’ve built it, or the next person comes in and takes it and runs with it, and makes it work for students moving forward, I think that the exciting part moving forward is seeing how somebody is gonna take a new take on our existing program,” Schnacker said.
As concerns over literature in libraries arise, the future of libraries seems uncertain. Although these issues aren’t new, they become more prominent with each social media post and news coverage. But Schnacker has hopes for the future.
“For me the thing that I’ve been thinking a lot about lately is that parents should take an interest in what their kids are reading, but not from a place of fear. Not from a place of abundance of caution, but simply because that’s the best way to promote literacy in your family,” Schnacker said. “Show an interest in what your kids are reading and encourage them to talk about their reading, it’s the best way to help kids engage with text and show comprehension.”
She has hope that these elements don’t go away, but also that they aren’t twisted for political purposes or someone’s agenda.
She has dreams not only for our own library, but for libraries everywhere.
“I hope that the sense of empowerment that our community and our campus feels through this space will continue. And my hope for libraries in general, whether it’s in Texas, whether it’s throughout the United States, throughout the world, is that they can be seen as places where different ideas are welcome,” Schnacker said. “They’re places of civil discourse, and they’re places where the truth is not only explored but pursued. And that it can be that place where all those things are allowed to thrive, I hope that all that potential that exists in a library can expand outwards towards communities.”
As she finishes out the nine weeks, she wanted students and teachers to be prepared, with as little disruption as possible during this transition.
“Ten years of working with teachers, developing lessons, developing research projects, I’m also the campus webpage coordinator so it’s also a matter of making sure that all the things, all the information components that need to be current and correct on our website are thus.” She’s a team player till the end, “just basically planning for that transition time period, and giving that grace to our campus that it deserves,” she said.
She fully intends to come to things like football games, the Brahma March, and other school events. She regards her absence in a positive way, as she will always have a connection to the school.
“You know, I live in the Mac community, it’s just my role within this community is changing,” Schnacker said. “I feel very lucky to have been on a campus, and serve in this role for 10 years, on a campus that fully embraces the potential of a successful library program and knowing what that can do. Not just to provide equity on a campus for kids that maybe don’t have these resources at home, but also just the ability to elevate everything on a campus. Whether it’s instruction, or whether it’s providing a dynamic space so that clubs and organizations can meet together and have the resources they need to make things happen. I know I’ve been lucky to be on a campus and be within a community that sees that potential, and not every librarian gets to experience that.”
