Laura D’Elia and Anita Cellucci
Photo/submitted
By Ed Karvoski Jr., Contributing Writer
Westborough – Two Westborough school library teachers were honored for their dedication to the profession of school librarianship through leadership at the state level and beyond.
The Massachusetts School Library Association (MSLA) presented the 2017 Service Award to Anita Cellucci of Westborough High School (WHS) and Laura D’Elia of J. Harding Armstrong and Annie E. Fales elementary schools. Awards were presented May 7 during the MSLA annual conference at the Resort and Conference Center at Hyannis.
Completing her seventh year at WHS, Anita Cellucci said, “Westborough is very supportive of education and the library. I feel very fortunate to be working here.”
From 1996 to 2001, Cellucci enjoyed working at Framingham Public Library, particularly in the children’s department. She was hired in 2001 as librarian and paraeducator at Davis Thayer Elementary School in Franklin.
Initially wanting to teach first-graders how to read, she studied elementary education at Lesley University and received a master’s degree. She worked eight years as library teacher at Miscoe Hill School in Mendon, and ultimately earned a master’s in library media studies at Salem State College.
In 2010, Cellucci began at WHS by setting goals that she believes have been accomplished.
“There was a very traditional library space before I came here and they were looking for somebody to bring it to the 21st century,” she explained. “Being able to reach all students was one of my biggest goals. I’m proud that the library has absolutely become the students’ space. They meet at the library with friends in the morning before school starts; there are three lunch blocks and typically 70 to 100 kids are in here each block; and there are always club meetings here after school.”
Clubs that meet regularly at the library are the Slam Poetry Team and the Westborough Libraries Teen Advisory Board, a joint organization with the public library.
Cellucci has served as MSLA president since 2015, and presented at American Association of School Libraries conferences. She also worked with the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners on the Statewide Digital Resources Acquisition Committee.
“It’s really important for librarians to be able to educate why the library is necessary in our world today,” she said. “It’s also important that we are able to articulate what it means to be a school librarian in 2017.”
Similar to Cellucci, Laura D’Elia initially wanted to be an elementary school teacher. While pursuing a bachelor’s degree in elementary education at Framingham State University, she visited schools for field studies. There, she realized her love for fairy and folk tales, then changed her major to children’s literature. After graduating, she worked in the children’s departments at bookstores and public libraries.
“People kept encouraging me to get my master’s in library sciences, so I did,” she relayed. “Then I discovered that school librarianship at that time was changing. It was a full instructional teacher with curriculum and technology integration, and information literacy. All that was really exciting to me.”
A native and current resident of Westborough, D’Elia received the 2017 Service Award while completing the first school year working in her hometown.
“I’m thrilled to be honored with Anita; it says a lot for the Westborough school library program,” she said. “I’m really proud to be here.”
Before beginning in Westborough, D’Elia worked as a school library teacher for two years at Oak Hill Middle School in Newton, three at Pine Glen Elementary School in Burlington, and nine at Fay School in Southborough.
“The hardest part for every school librarian is to have the rest of the educational world value the position,” she said. “School librarians are being cut because their value isn’t understood. You wonder if you’re going to have a job next year, but you always know that you have the best job in the school with so much value to learning. It’s just hard to convince everybody of that.”
D’Elia serves as co-chair of the MSLA Professional Learning Committee. She appreciates the importance of ongoing interaction with her peers.
“We grow and learn with each other,” she said. “The learning never stops.”
Cellucci and D’Elia will present together at the Massachusetts Teachers Association Summer Conference, scheduled for Sunday, July 30, to Thursday, August 3, at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.