Harker’s own Enid Davis, library director, was a featured presenter at the BayNet Librarian Conference at the San Francisco Public Library on Sept. 23. BayNet, a multitype library organization of information specialists from around the Bay Area, invited Davis to speak about her Harker experience at their annual event, themed “Future of Libraries 5.0: The Recovery Engine on the Hard Times Train.”

Davis, the only school librarian to present, shared her experience of taking the Harker program from a single professional in one facility to a staff of five librarians and six clerks in three libraries over her sixteen-year career at Harker. Davis’ presentation, titled “Case Study: School Library Staff as Partners in an Educational Community,” focused on making the most of staff talents, forming partnerships within the school community and the importance of information literacy for learners of all ages.

“Since so many public schools are without librarians, children’s librarians are going to have to help young patrons learn how to use databases and achieve some level of information literacy,” explained Davis. “For example, our lower school campus librarian, Kathy Clark, demonstrated to her colleagues at the Mountain View Public Library (where she works part-time) how to use their suite of EBSCO databases.”

“Enid made her presentation memorable by using her story-telling style and creativity to captivate the audience,” said Sue Smith, US campus librarian, who also attended. Smith described Davis’ use of a dozen wig stands and a plethora of hats to illustrate her presentation. “She stole the show!”