Librarian profiles
Meet Greta Casto
Remember that old saying, "when one door closes, another opens"? Greta Casto's story had its own twist.
"I truly feel that I left my smaller classroom to enter a much larger one," says Casto, a school librarian who worked as a self-contained elementary classroom teacher before returning to school for her master's degree at the University of Kentucky.
The move has paid off. Casto's work was honored when she received the 2004 Milken Family Foundation National Educator Award.
Casto had plenty of encouragement from her mother. "My mother was a school library media specialist—librarian as it was called then—my entire life. She was my biggest cheerleader to enter this field."
Casto now works at Russell Primary School in Russell, Kentucky, where the Library Media Center is a beehive of activity. "I love my job because the Library Media Center is truly the hub of everything that happens in our school. Since I have been in the LMC, the school has adopted a flexible schedule that has allowed me to do the most exciting things."
"We have kindergarten students creating electronic portfolios that will follow them until they exit the Primary School; we have a Primary School news broadcast that is produced by students; we have Book Clubs during the school day in which we transform the LMC into the setting of the book and students—dressed as characters from that book—come to explore the next part of our story together."
The library also holds a popular weekly Family Reading Night. "Our parents are very present in our LMC, too," Casto says.
Casto is the school's technology coordinator. "This is a very enjoyable part of my work and is integrated into the job of a Library Media Specialist. I am responsible for keeping the technology running in the classrooms in my building, as well as being a resource for the district to train faculty and staff in its use. I often utilize a SMARTBoard to teach both children and adult learners about technology."
Casto likes to "spark" collaboration with teachers, and encourage collaboration among others at the school.
"All in all," she sums up, "the job of a Library Media Specialist, in my opinion is the best of all worlds. I simply love what I do."
