Librarian benefits from OPS additions, accepts Central position

There is a new face at Central, more specifically a new face to the second floor two side. Colleen Nieland is the new librarian now working alongside Beth Eilers.

Nieland’s career in education goes back many years. She taught seventh grade language arts for many years at King Science Center. However, she knew she wanted a change, so she transitioned and became the librarian at Alice Buffett Magnet Middle School. This helped fulfill a childhood dream of Nieland’s; her girl scouts leader was a librarian at Peru State College, and this had inspired her to become one as well.

“I wanted to be a librarian my whole, entire life. I have always loved books, I have always loved learning about new things, and I was just always intrigued with being a librarian,” Nieland said.

This is currently Nieland’s eighth year as a librarian. During her seven years at Buffett, she formed many relationships with both the students and the teachers. Her favorite part of working there was the versatility of the job.

“It was different every single day. Every day there was a new challenge… a new thing that made me laugh,” Nieland said, “There are new challenges that make the day go by quickly.”

Even though the transition from being the librarian at Buffett to now being the librarian at Central was not too difficult, Nieland said it was difficult to leave behind the great relationships she built while working at Buffett.

“You build great relationships when you work in a building for ten years, and it is hard to leave those relationships, but I am meeting great people here at Central, too,” she said.

Nieland got the opportunity to work at Central by reaching out to her supervisor about changing to a high school. She discussed “the ins and outs” and also talked to Eilers and Principal Dr. Ed Bennett about what her daily requirements would be.

After 18 years in middle school education, Nieland said it was time for a change.

“There was just something telling me it was time for a change. I was told that their might two positions open, but they weren’t sure that it could be something in the future that might have to happen, so I applied for transfer just in case and was lucky enough to get the interview here with [Bennett and Eilers] and got the job,” Nieland said.

Her success in finding a job is in part due to OPS creating more jobs for librarians district wide, an endeavor which Nieland credits with increasing opportunities for librarians.

“I think that it’s great. The more librarians we have, the better we can service our students and teachers when they’re doing inquiry projects, when they need help with independent reading projects…,” Nieland said.

Now that she is getting used to Central and easing into her position as a high school librarian, Nieland has become determined to get better with technology to keep up with society’s technologically savvy era.

“I just want to get better at what I do, and of course I am working with Mrs. Eilers who is amazing, so I have a partner to do that with. I’d like to improve in every way and not just with learning the high school inquiry projects, but also with technology. The biggest one is probably to become more adept at technology integration,” Nieland said.

On top of learning more about the technology being used at Central, Nieland is becoming more comfortable with her surroundings as she encounters everything from meeting new teachers to “learning where a new water bottle filler thing [is].”

Amidst the “thousand new things” she has been learning, she also has the chance to be experiencing all of this for the first time alongside her freshman daughter.

Nieland laughingly admits that her daughter was not so excited to have her mother at both her middle school and now her high school.

“I think at first she wasn’t so excited that mom was going from middle school to high school with her, but she doesn’t have to ride the bus, she has a place to quietly work after school everyday and if she wants to stay a little later there’s a ride home that isn’t the bus,” Nieland said. She believes that overall it is going to be okay.

The transition has been everything that Nieland had dreamed it would be, and she said she is happy with her position at Central and has already began making new relationships.

“Everybody has been wonderful, the students are amazing, the staff is amazing and I have nothing negative at all to say… It’s all been positive,” Nieland said.

However, Nieland still has a seventh grader at Buffett. Even though her seventh grader still attends and she worked there for seven years, her allegiance is with the Eagles.

“I still have a seventh grader at Buffett,” Nieland said, “but I think that my blood is going to start bleeding purple.”