In her spare time, Emma McDonald eagerly pours over the pages of her favorite book series, “The Queen’s Thief,” absorbing every word. While she is not reading, she is still surrounded by books, working full-time as Lovejoy’s first official library media specialist.

“My job is to support teachers and students with any kind of learning needs they have or for teachers and their curriculum,” McDonald said. “I help support them by finding information and if they’re looking for resources I help find them. I also promote books and reading to students and provide support to students and their research and any classwork they are having issues with.”

With 23 years of experience in areas like Richardson, Lucas, and Houston, Mcdonald has taught in a variety of grade levels and classes. With this valuable knowledge, she was exactly what Lovejoy was looking for.

“She is incredibly knowledgeable in how to support high school students and [has] a passion for supporting student learning,” Principal Chris Mayfield said. “We made the decision to hire Mrs. McDonald because we saw the continued need to support students in the ways [I said above]. Our previous library staff was doing a great job but we knew our students needed a full-time LMS to best support them.”

McDonald has many new changes and ideas for the library this year. One of the additions to the library is the maker space, an area in the back of the library. With abundant art supplies and technology, the maker space allows students to create whatever they want.

“In the back area were gong to have craft and legos, but later on I’m hoping to get some electronic components like robots and coding things,” McDonald said. “I’m looking forward to that being a fun place back in the library.”

McDonald also plans on adding are genius hour classes, where students can sign up to teach a class to students and teachers about an area they are specialized in.

“Every single person has something they are amazing at and everyone is different, but some of us have [something] that [we] are so good at it that we could teach other people about it,” McDonald said. “Whether it’s taking care of a pet or fashion design or coding, I want to get students to sign up to teach classes before or after school about the thing they’re really amazing at.”

Minor changes include self-checkout, and a sign-in computer that students must register in when they enter and leave the library.

“Procedural-wise, students need to sign in when they come into the library and let us know why they are using the library and then they’ll need to sign out when they leave,” McDonald said. “The other thing that is changing is that we are going to have self-checkout so students can check themselves out instead of having to wait for a librarian or helped to come check them out

As a librarian, McDonald is always in the library looking to lend a helping hand to any student who needs her assistance.

“I had to go [to the library] for an independent read book, and [Mrs. McDonald] was really sweet and helpful when I was choosing a book,” freshman Michelle Foster said.

McDonald loves to read and help in the library, but she has other hobbies and interests outside of her job including swimming, scrapbooking, and her love of science fiction.

“I’m a science fiction-kind-of-geek,” McDonald said. “I love Star Trek and Doctor Who. I love anything that has to do with science fiction and fantasy.”