Carrie Friday, Melbourne High School
Role: Media Specialist
District: Melbourne High School, Brevard Public Schools
Location: Melbourne, Florida, USA
District Enrollment: 70,000 students
School Enrollment: 2,300 students
As media specialist at Melbourne High School, Carrie Friday has helped transform the media center into a high-touch hub where students know they can find support, resources, and room to simply be kids. From college applications and IB support to board games, lunch access, and everyday problem-solving, she has built a library program that meets students where they are while keeping the school community connected.
In Her Own Words
What is your role, and how long have you been in it?
“I’m the current media specialist at Melbourne High School and also the president of our state organization. I’ve been in my district for 16 years and a media specialist for 10. Within that role, I’ve been at two schools: a middle school and a high school.”
What’s your favorite part of being a librarian today?
“The kids. Always the kids. Everything else ebbs and flows but the kids are incredible and mean the whole world to me.”
How has your library program changed over the years?
“At this particular high school, the space had limited openings, the collection hadn’t been updated in many years, and no one really utilized the media center. We refreshed the space, we’ve been updating the collection, the doors are open as much as humanly possible, and we added a lot of programming to bring students, staff, and families in. Now I see about half our school each day. We’ve had some growing pains. Because no one was using the library before, teachers assumed that they could bring their class down on a whim to do whatever they were planning to do. I stay so busy that they’ve had to learn they need to schedule their visits. Most of them do this. The students are awesome! They know if they need an answer to anything to come find me. If they need a supply or a resource, they come find me. If there’s an event happening, they assume it is in the media center or connected to it. Their expectations are that I’m there to support and provide whatever resources they need whether it’s a plastic fork or help with their college applications. They aren’t wrong. The only downside is that they think I live there and never go home so they don’t understand why I won’t stay there with them until 7 at night. Parents are much more involved and reach out with questions or support regularly.”
What is the library’s most important responsibility at your school?
“I don’t want to speak for the district level because each of our schools has different needs, but the library’s most important responsibility at my school is to be an open access resource provider. It’s a different perspective than many media specialists have but at the high school level, kids need so much more than just access to library books or databases. In fact, I talk books with my students all day but then they order it or their parents buy it. My circulation numbers aren’t super high, but it’s a high touch space. I worked on about 300 students’ college applications last year. I provide a lot of support with our IB program. I host club meetings because I have a larger space. I am open at lunch for students to eat, do homework, hang out, whatever. I’m a place where they can decompress. They can use computers and print which many of them aren’t even sure how to do. I house the textbooks. I have microwaves. I have board games and passive programming where kids can come be kids. AND ALSO, I check out books and support their research and whatever else they need. They don’t get that anywhere else on campus. If their needs shift or change, I shift or change what I’m providing to support them.”
What’s one thing about your library program that you’re especially proud of?
“The level of engagement and the amount of trust the students and parents have in me. That’s a really hard thing to earn these days but these students are fiercely loyal to me, as are their parents.”
How Destiny Library Manager Helps
What is the biggest challenge that Destiny Library Manager helps you solve?
“Data collection. Because we use the library side [Destiny Library Manager] and the resource side [Destiny Resource Manager], I can get all the stats and data I need. I can easily get access to what needs to be weeded, what I need more copies of, and what the kids are reading.”
What Destiny Library Manager features do you and your staff/students enjoy most?
“For my staff, we use the check in/out feature and the quick snapshot report regularly. My students rarely ever use Destiny. They don’t need to. I have my collection set up in a way that they can easily find whatever they are looking for. ”
Any “hidden gems” or unique ways that you use Destiny Library Manager?
“The depths of data they can pull. There is a treasure of information there…”
Looking Ahead: AI and Learning from Peers
AI in libraries—are you more excited or apprehensive?
“I use AI like it’s my full-time job and teach my students when it’s appropriate to use it and how to prompt better prompts to get what they need. I use it to search for books that might violate our state statutes so I can look more closely at them. I use it to help me see gaps in my collection. I use it to help manage and analyze data. I use it to plan my programming. I use it to help support my lesson plans. It makes me more efficient at my job without impacting any student data or privacy.”
What would you most like to learn from fellow Destiny Library Manager users, or is there anything else you’d like to share with them?
“I’d love to be more knowledgeable about the information I can pull from Destiny and have a cheat sheet for how to get to it.”
Just for Fun
You’re throwing a party and can invite five fictional characters. Who’s on the list?
“Ooooohhhhh. That’s a tough one.”
- Kathleen Kelly from You’ve Got Mail (movie but she’s a book QUEEN).
- Mr. Mac from Booked (the librarian who is a former rap star and changes the main character’s life)
- Lara Jean Covey from To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (we’d be letter writing and baking chocolate chip cookies)
- Brooklyn from City Spies (she’d dig up any gossip)
- Justyce McAllister from Dear Martin (who would bring so much depth and perspective).
If your library had a theme song, what would it be?
“You’ve Got a Friend in Me” from Toy Story…lol or “Count on Me” by Bruno Mars maybe?”
