A Librarian’s Love

One of the first things seen at the entrance of the library is the face of the library assistant. They’ll greet the students, maybe ask for a pass or help them find a book to check out.

The library’s previous assistant, Shelby Dupre, was a beloved addition but she left late in the first semester for a job as a children’s librarian.

Enter Alana Gaulin, almost finished with her Master’s program at the University of Washington and the newest library assistant. While new to the school, her love of libraries certainly isn’t.

“For the longest time I wanted to be a teacher,” Gaulin said. “Then six years ago, I got a part time job at a local library and fell in love with it.”

Public and high school libraries have very different roles and experiences, which begs the question of what made BHS appealing to Gaulin.

“So I could ask every single student for their pass,” she said jokingly. “That was my number one goal.” 

In reality it has much less to do with passes and more to do with location, location, location. 

“Jokes aside, I saw this position was open and I thought it was a great way to get into school libraries in this area,” Gaulin said.

She even mentioned that school libraries give librarians more free reign in how they organize and structure compared to public libraries.

“In public libraries, librarians either have one specific focus they do, which usually means working with the books, or they’re doing more outreach and programs,” Gaulin said. “In comparison, school librarians can do both while seeing the same people everyday.” 

While public libraries may have weekly or possibly monthly regulars, school library’s have students come and go every day. Especially BHS’s library, which has been tailor made so that students are always there doing something.

Book clubs meet daily, while Film Club gathers every Friday, so bean bag chairs are always dotting the carpet with tables upon tables set for students to work.The tolerance for food makes the library a popular lunch spot, centered by the two people running the show — the head and assistant librarians. 

While Gaulin may be new, she mentions how past experiences make the chaos seem like nothing.

“At my last library position I started three days before winter break, then I had two months before COVID,” Gaulin said. “So out of that experience I’m ready to go.”

Besides being a high school librarian, Gaulin has another love that takes up a place in her life.

“I’m a huge ‘Winnie the Pooh’ fan,” she said. “It’s my pride.”

A popular character that dominates the media, “Winnie the Pooh” is one of the things that has shaped Gaulin into who she is. 

“It still brings people together and it has a childlike innocence for me that helped me see the world in a slightly different and better way,” she said. 

Now, almost all her clothing is dominated by shirts, socks and accessories – even a Winnie the Pooh onesie that she wears regularly.

“I did a paper on ‘Winnie the Pooh’,” Gaulin said. “ I did my class presentation, in my grad school class, in that onesie.”