The State High library doors are always open, inviting you to come in. It’s almost impossible to go to school without passing by the doors and looking through the window. If you decide to go in, you’ll be greeted by shelves upon shelves of books, along with two smiling faces. 

These are the faces of Mr. Morath and Dr. Fuhrmam, State High’s librarians. For them, being a librarian isn’t just about the books; it’s about opportunities. Their mantra is that they exist to help all the State High students reach success, and this becomes clear by how they run the library. As Morath puts it, “The library’s always an area of growth… we not only support the classrooms and the individuals, we also have a perpetual drive for our own program. We wanna do more, go further, get more engaged with everybody year after year after year. It’s kind of a fun job where you always try to outdo yourself.” 

As the librarians get into the first few weeks of the school year, they want to get back into the swing of things. They recently started opening back up the library’s evening hours. The library will be open on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday until 6:00 pm. Along with implementing these hours, they also want to ensure that every student is aware of the opportunities the library has to offer to them. During the first two weeks of school, almost every English class visited the library to allow each student the opportunity to check something out. The library is also continually expanding its collection of books. 

One special thing about the librarians is their connections with the students. They truly care about each and every student who comes into the library. Morath and Furhman both thoroughly enjoy being able to see growth in students from ninth grade all the way until 12th. “The research, and the inquiry of students, and their maturity of how they look at finding information- how they keep exploring what they’re interested in and what they’re researching is just very different than it is at the other levels. You can really see a lot of growth from ninth to12th grade and how they develop in learning and growing.” Furhman says.

Growth is something that they want to help foster. Morath says that “Using the library is a lifelong skill. The more comfortable students become with using the library, the more resources that will be available to them for the rest of their life.” However, they’re also aware that students won’t want to use the library if it doesn’t relate to their own lives. “We work very hard on one of our goals here, which is to make sure every student in State High can find themselves in a book. And if they can’t, we want them reaching out to us and saying “Hey Mr. Morath, Hey Dr. Furhman, this is me, this is what I have going on, do you have a book like that?” And we wanna be sure that we can get that book.” Morath says. “Every book gives us an opportunity. It’s like meeting someone new. You can learn from all those interactions and what they have to share and their life experiences and books bring all of those things to the table. I wanna say that you can take something out of every single book you ever read.” Morath continues. 

The main thing that the librarians want people to take away from any interaction held with them is that they are there for you. As Furhman puts it, “I think one of the things that we really try to explain to students at the beginning of the year and all the time is to know that this is your library. This isn’t our library, it’s the student library. Whether it’s taking advantage of the opportunity of the books we have or the resources we have or the space or the environment, we’re here to help students have a place and a space for all of that, all day long.”

So whether you are in need of a place to focus, a resource to take advantage of, or just something to read for fun, the librarians will be there with a book in hand.