By Owen Zides ’19, Sports Editor
Mrs. Fiske has been a librarian for a long time now, almost 12 years in total. She has now been at the high school for three years, and something has just happened that has never happened to her, let alone at the high school at all. Mrs. Fiske recently won the prestigious 2016 Web Seal of Excellence by The Massachusetts School Library Association, for the website she created for the high school library.
The Massachusetts School Library Association, which recognizes outstanding effort in everything libraries around the Massachusetts area, gave Fiske the incredible award. When Fiske found out she had won it, it came to her as a complete shock.
“Only the best in the business get awards such as these. It’s both fabulous, and completely out of nowhere that I got it,” she said.
The website was in the works for six months, and now only makes frequent updates with new information or new changes. Fiske has been working on the website for a long time, and said that the whole experience of making the website was worthwhile because of all the people that are using it and getting help from it. She loves when her website is able to help students with projects, or anything else they need within the library.
“I feel so proud. This website took a lot of time and it feels great that someone noticed all the hard work that I put into it,” she said.
Fiske believes that any library website should be an extension of the physical library itself which is why she put so much time into it. “The website is a place where kids can come for extra help on projects or papers, outside of school, all 24 hours a day, and have all they need to do well right in front of them, from valuable resources for students such as Research Guides and Databases,” she said.
Ms. Wolfe, another librarian here at the high school, said just the same thing about the website: “The website has really great interactive videos to show kids how to do things on the website, and has helpful walkthroughs that can help everyone and not just students. Also, I really like the fact that the library has both book reviews and also a Facebook page, so you can see what’s going on around the library.”
Fiske says that getting the award has been sweet, but her time spent here at WHS has been much sweeter, and she is looking forward to the future here.
“I really love both the kids and teachers here at the high school. The school has a great culture all throughout, and I love that I can be a part of that everyday. Also, it doesn’t hurt that we have this brand new library to work in. I’m so proud of the whole website and I hope that students are using it and continue to use it to its full potential,” she said.