Elementary School Librarian, Wildwood Elementary School, Amherst, MA

Posted February 25, 2015

The Amherst Public School District is seeking candidates for the position of Elementary School Librarian (grades K-6) at the Wildwood Elementary School. The successful candidate will be passionate about all the opportunities that the position holds and enjoy spending the school day working with 5- to 12-year-old students. The candidate will have demonstrated working knowledge of the role of school libraries in the 21st century and the Massachusetts State Curriculum Frameworks & Common Core. In addition to managing a 20,000 volume library and supporting students and teachers, the librarian will teach 21 classes per week, on a fixed schedule, providing prep time for classroom teachers.

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education certification as a School Librarian is required for the position. A waiver may be considered for applicants who are in the process of securing this license. Bi-cultural and bilingual candidates are preferred.

Job Goals: 

• Ensure that students and staff are effective users of ideas and information.
• Empower students to be critical thinkers, enthusiastic readers, skillful researchers and ethical users of information. 
• Nuture a love of learning in all students and ensure equitable access to information.
• Collaborate with classroom teachers to support units of instruction.
• Align the School Library Program with the mission, goals, and objectives of the school district. 

Roles and Responsibilities

School Librarian:

• Ensures that the school library is an essential part of the learning community by fostering a creative, flexible environment.
• Conducts reader’s advisory to match students with literature interests and reading levels.
• Establishes and manages procedures for the acquisition, collection development, organization, maintenance, circulation and inventory of print and electronic resources for the library.
• Uses professional journals appropriate to the curricula, identifies and procures resources appropriate to the curriculum, the learners, and instructional strategies of the school community.
• Evaluates and uses existing and emerging technologies to support teaching and learning.
• Promotes the ethical use of information: copyright, fair use, and licensing of intellectual property.
• Maintains and oversees the physical space ensuring that it is accessible and appealing to all students and staff, creating user-friendly sections appropriate to the variety of reading levels and interests so as to entice and engage readers and draw them to the library.

Teacher: 

• Collaborates with and supports teachers in the implementation of classroom curriculum.
• In collaboration with district librarians and technology teachers, promotes and teaches information literacy through print, library databases and the Internet. 
• Fosters a love of literature and reading through genre and author studies, book talks, and other literacy activities.
• Differentiates and manages instruction for all types of learners.

Leader: 

• Remains current in professional practices, educational research; maintains active professional memberships.
• Collects and analyzes data to improve instruction.
• Administers the library budget to support program goals.
• Participates in the recruiting, hiring, training and supervising of library staff and volunteers; evaluates support staff.

Please submit your completed online application through our partnership with schoolspring.com or by logging onto our website https://www.arps.org and navigating to the Human Resources page. Contact Rachel Bowen at [email protected] or at 413-362-1808 with questions.