The media center librarian Keith Clarkson, Clarkson’s assistant Jennifer Henninger and personal computer (PC) service technician Chris Riddel are often under-appreciated for their hard and enduring work throughout the entirety of the school year.
The Media Center lies at the heart of Woodbridge High and can also be described as the metaphorical heart of the school. Where the front office is the brain of the school controlling all the organs, the heart of Woodbridge High supplies key nutrients like textbooks, chromebooks and reading books throughout the body. Thus the three members operating the Media Center are responsible for sustaining the lifeblood of Woodbridge High’s curriculum.
Often, the enormous job of managing all of the Media Center’s materials on a daily basis is understated. Henninger provides valuable insight on house chores that must be done to upkeep the Media Center’s library beyond the surface level.
“[We] try to process all the new books that come into our library…making sure that our students have all the supplies that they need,” Henninger said. “Every single book that comes in, we have to barcode it, shelve it, return it and repair it individually.”
This tedious process is performed manually and only done by these three staff members, which is shocking when considering the sheer amount of inventory that is organized and distributed to students. Clarkson takes this job very seriously with knowledge on all the materials.
“We have maybe tens of thousands of different materials from textbooks to workbooks to English novels to regular books,” Clarkson said. “[We have] maybe a couple hundred more Chromebooks that we keep on standby for [testing] time.”
It is also in the Media Center manager’s interests to keep the space comfortable for students to work in. Henninger is very passionate about decorating the Media Center every season. Further, according to Clarkson, managing the furniture has been a new challenge.
“Those shelves there [are] all new…we’ve brought in some new furniture [and] some couches…[and] we’ve revamped the look of this place over the last three or four years,” Clarkson said.
Just as how blood circulates throughout the body in a cycle, every school year damaged chromebooks, books and school materials are returned or replaced to be recycled once school starts.
“The end of spring everyone returns their books and so we are trying to organize that, put it back on the shelves and get ready for the new school year,” Henninger said.
The process of reshelving items happens over the summer so they usually start the school year weeks early for registration. This also applies to Riddel, who is at the frontline of fixing software issues on school hardware.
“When that summer hits, that’s usually our time where we can assess the Chromebooks we get back, make sure that they’re functioning [and] be ready for checkout again for next year,” Riddel said. “[I] make sure classrooms are prepped and ready, such as the equipment is plugged in, turned on [and] able to do the normal operations.”
His role at Woodbridge High has become increasingly more relevant with Irvine Unified School District (IUSD) becoming more focused on using technology. He faces the struggle of handling thousands of chromebooks across the entire student body where each user has their own issues and needs.
“90% [of the tests are] digital, so that does entail that I have to ensure devices are up to date, make sure that they’re able to run the programs that they need to…It involves me being more involved on tests,” Riddel said.
Immense gratitude should be shown toward all of the three Media Center managers’ commitment to keeping Woodbridge High alive.
They prevent a heart attack by supporting all aspects of the Woodbridge High curriculum. The Media Center is very fortunate to be managed by some great staff members.
