The beginning of a new school year is a substantial adjustment for teachers and students alike -— but for Emmaus High School’s new librarian, Molly Magro, it may be a larger adjustment than for most.
After over a decade as a librarian for Eyer Middle School, Magro has moved away from the familiarity of the Eyer library into a new atmosphere: EHS.
While Magro has enjoyed reading from an early age, her desire to become a librarian truly bloomed in New York City after visiting school libraries for her previous career as a publicity assistant in the children’s publishing division for Simon and Schuster.
“I felt like I wanted to stay and talk to the students who were there about books, and I didn’t want to go back to my cubicle,” Magro said. “I don’t know if I could be happy if I wasn’t in a job where I got to talk about books.”
With this new realization, and the support of her mother — a librarian herself — Magro moved back to Pennsylvania, earning her Master’s degree in Library Science at Kutztown University.
“My first job out of library school was Eyer, and that was crazy because I didn’t know that I wanted [to work at a] middle school,” Magro said. “So I thought, ‘okay, well, I’ll give this a chance.’ And then I ended up absolutely loving it, and I stayed there for 12 years.”
Magro remains confident in her decision to move, even though her time at Eyer was full of love for both the students and the environment.
“I felt like I needed new challenges and new adventures, so when this opportunity presented itself, and I met Mrs. Guarriello and understood what a fantastic leader she is and how supportive she is of the ideas I have for this library, that was really exciting to me,” Magro said. “I knew I wanted to say ‘yes.’”
Magro is taking on this new challenge with a sense of enthusiasm. She is constantly thinking of improvements for the library, such as the addition of more lounge furniture. Magro has already begun to shape the library into her vision with the change of an old policy.
“One thing that I’ve been enjoying is how excited students are when I tell them they’re allowed to eat in here,” Magro shared.
Beyond allowing students to bring their own food, Magro hopes to build an EHS cafe within the library.
“I do have plans to hopefully put a cafe into this area, and then ideally, different student organizations could run it each month and get the profits,” Magro said.
Magro is extremely committed to the idea of a more student focused-library. This fall, Magro plans to start a student library advisory so that a group of students can come together to suggest, comment, and help guide her on changes they want for the library.
At Eyer, Magro helped run the theater program and after this year, which is her final year of aiding in their program, she hopes to assist in the EHS Theater Department to share her love of the arts. She has already started by participating in the audition panel for EHS’ 2024 fall play.
Magro is excited to take on the school year and make a lasting impact on the students at EHS.
“I want the students of Emmaus to know that the library is here for them,” Magro said. “I really am always open to feedback and ideas. I want everybody to feel comfortable here. I hope that they spread the word about how nice it is to be here this year.”
