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As the school librarian of Thornton Fractional South High School in Lansing, Gail Meyer MLIS ’06 taps into students’ interests to spark enjoyment in recreational reading.

“When they come back with a book and tell me, ‘I’ve never read a book I liked before, but this is it,’ that’s when I feel I was meant to do this,” Meyer said. “It’s an awesome feeling.”

Meyer’s efforts to connect teens to books requires “a lot of listening” and learning about the themes they enjoy in movies, television and other parts of their life, she acknowledged.

Her work to encourage reading and boost student literacy earned her the title of School Librarian of the Year by the Association of Illinois School Library Educators (AISLE) in 2024.

Meyer has served as AISLE’s advocacy chair since 2022, focused on growing the number of librarians working in schools across the state.

“We need more school librarians,” she said. “One of our goals is to encourage schools and school districts to hire school librarians. We would love to see more people interested in becoming librarians take the school route, even if it’s a back-up option.”

The education Meyer received in Dominican’s School of Information Studies included school librarianship, she said.

“I do think I had some of the best professors in the state at Dominican,” she said. “The experiences they were able to share and the information they passed onto their students was so wide-ranging. They covered every aspect in-depth with their knowledge, and that was wonderful.”

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