The Media Center of the Owatonna High School has evolved over the years. The old OHS featured a large space full of bookshelves, chairs, and computers. The new OHS Media Center is much smaller in terms of shelf-space, but has an open commons area adjacent to it. This is all located on the second floor, with stairs leading to the cafeteria. The technology specialists of OHS are tied to the Media Center and ensure students have access to the technology required to meet their learning needs.
One constant through all the changes in the Media Center has been the woman at the helm. Ms. Diane Watts has been the Media Center Assistant for over two decades at OHS. Her daily work includes aiding students in book selection, helping classes or small groups that visit the library, helping students with their Chromebooks as issues arise, or submitting technology requests for more serious issues.
Ms. Watts said that her primary role is “to aid classes and small groups that come in as they search for specific books”. This means she has developed a close working relationship with some English teachers and other staff that bring students to the library.
The tech requests go to the OHS Technology Specialist 1, Mr. Dawson Drentlaw. Mr. Drentlaw is not available for comment at the time of this article. However, Mr. Ian Simon, as a Technology Specialist 2, was able to speak to the roles of Mr. Drentlaw as well as his own roles in the district.
Mr. Simon typically works out of the district office, but fills in for Mr. Drentlaw as needed. When Mr. Simon is not filling in, he is responsible for handling networks and servers that service the entire district. He is also responsible for ensuring the functionality of networks at OHS. This includes responding to outages and making sure the proper updates have occurred.
Mr. Simon’s favorite part about his IT job is responding specifically to other people’s problems. He appreciates the human to human interaction that transpires in his role.
Mr. Simon explained, “I am definitely drawn to fixing immediate problems for people as opposed to more general software problems”. He noted that he doesn’t dislike the software aspect, but appreciates the human interaction.
As far as Mr. Drentlaw’s role is concerned, he works out of the Media Center at OHS. He is tasked with fixing student and staff devices as tech requests are made. He has a variety of tools that are able to fix anything from broken screens to replacing specific parts to software issues.
In terms of IT workers as a whole, Mr. Simon said, “We enjoy getting to know people. I think that plays a big part of it: having those good relationships within the building. Then, we can understand what people are going through, what their needs are, and how we can fulfill them”.
Ms. Watts believes the Media Center is an important location for students in OHS. She does not define the Media Center strictly to the corner room that contains bookshelves, but extends the definition to the commons area.
(Tanner Smith)
Ms. Watts says it is important “just to have a place to come to where kids feel welcome and want to hang out and hopefully have a book in their hands. That’s the goal.”
Beyond creating the inclusive environment of the Media Center, Ms. Watts enjoys seeing kids everyday and responding to the changes that happen in the media world over time. One persistent topic of discussion for Ms. Watts is the censorship of books and making decisions about content that is appropriate for high school audiences. This became more of an issue due to the smaller library at the new high school. Media Center workers were tasked with deciding what books should stay in circulation. A lot of thought went into this process.
Ms. Watts explained, “There is the challenge of what sort of books should we offer or maybe hold back on. We need to keep that fresh and updated.” In recent years, she has had to become more aware of books that might contain “hot topics”. As issues arise with topics, the books are pulled off the shelves of OHS. Ms. Watts advises students to look for books with sensitive topics at Owatonna Public Library or other locations that offer books.
As a final note on the changes, Ms. Watts said, “I have just had fun all of these years with trying to keep up. I really enjoy the new building and I hope the students do too”.
All in all, the technology specialists of OHS and Ms. Watts as the Media Center Assistant seek to provide students and staff with accessibility to learning materials. This ranges from providing books with appropriate content, fulfilling tech requests and fixing network problems at the school-wide level. A consistent consideration for Ms. Watts is deciding what books are appropriate for high school students to read out of the OHS library. By monitoring the content in books and fixing technology problems, the workers of the Media Center give all students in OHS access to modern learning capabilities.
