Nina Fohner

“Unthankfulness is theft” – Martin Luther

A few years ago I blogged about some of the remarkable influences in my life. With my teaching career in the rear-view mirror, I thought that I would return to that thread – focusing on gratitude.

Our librarian, Nina Fohner, imparted to us a love of books as well as the knowledge of how to use the library as a research tool. To early elementary grades, she was our guide to award winning books, which she would read to us with dramatic flair. I can remember sitting with classmates on the carpeted floor as we delighted in Dr. Seuss and James and the Giant Peach. It was from Nina Fohner that we learned about the Newbery Award and the Caldecott Medal.

As we grew older, she was the guide to the “what and where” of the library’s organization. She introduced us to the Dewey decimal system and the card catalog. She taught research skills like taking notes on notecards and writing a bibliography. We learned to make use of the Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature, atlases and encyclopedias. And she made it fun. I remember what amounted to scavenger hunts using the resources available to us. Because of the sheltered nature of the city in which I grew up, I wrongly assumed that every school had a library, and that every school had a librarian like Mrs. Fohner.

When I attended college at UC Santa Barbara, I was shocked by the number of students who had no idea how to do research, use the card catalog – leverage the resources of the university’s library for learning. On several occasions I found myself assisting friends using skills acquired from Nina Fohner. Though the UCSB library was orders of magnitude larger than the library at West Hillsborough Elementary, the knowledge and love of the library transferred perfectly.

Obviously, technology has changed the library and the nature of books, periodicals, and research. Still, I think that something has been lost in the replacement of libraries with computers, and librarians with bar code readers. I will forever be grateful to Nina Fohner for what she poured into us many years ago.