Librarian Brenda Briley has dedicated seventeen years to her profession, with five of those years spent at Rock Hill High School. Besides her passion for literature, Briley loves her work because of the opportunity to build meaningful relationships with students. 

“I feel like it’s the best in the education world because most of the people that come to the library want to be in the library,” Briley said. “We get to connect with the students and I don’t have very many discipline issues. And then I don’t have grades, so I just get to connect with the students on a different level.”

Briley’s role encompasses various responsibilities, including managing Chromebook checkouts, ordering and organizing books, creating engaging displays, and handling various operational tasks. 

“I do a lot of the behind-the-scenes work,” Briley said. “Then there’s just a lot of the operations, like figuring out how we are going to implement things like the self-checkout and the self-check-in.”

Curating the library’s collection of books is a process that requires a discerning eye and an understanding of the school’s diverse population.

“There are professional organizations that review the books,” Briley said. “I have to read through those reviews and match the books with our population to see which books we want to order.”

However, this process can come with challenges, since Briley cannot read every book herself.

“I can read all of the reviews, and I can look at the summary,” Briley said. “But there’s nothing that tells me kind of the content of the book. So is this the right book for our schools? Or is it too mature? But sometimes you don’t know of an issue until a student grabs the book and reads it and says, I don’t know if this is for us. I think that the hardest part of it is balancing what I don’t know. And being able to say with confidence, ‘I did my due diligence in this and it just ended up not being for us.’”

Along with using the School Library Journal and communicating with other librarians, Briley uses social media to stay current with literature trends among teenagers.

“I go on TikTok because that’s where all of our kids are and that’s where they’re seeing the books that they want to check out,” Briley said. “So I try to stay on TikTok and see what’s popular.”

Briley also considers book requests from students.

“I think that that grows readers in one way,” Briley said. “[For] those who are already readers, that gets them to read more and say, ‘Oh, this library is for me.’ And then for the students that don’t particularly like reading, I ask them, ‘if you are forced to read a book, what kind of book would you want?’ And I try to get some of those books that are really high interest to try and grab those who say they don’t like to read.”

When it comes to her own reading preferences, Briley’s favorite genres are historical fiction and nonfiction. One impactful book for her is “Educated” by Tara Westover, a memoir about a girl raised in a fundamentalist environment where education for girls was severely limited, prompting her to take responsibility for her own learning.

“I just thought that was a really powerful thing,” Briley said. “She wasn’t afforded the luxury of a free education and sometimes we can take that for granted.”

Outside of her professional life, Briley expresses an appreciation for nature.

“I do photography, mostly nature photography,” Briley said. “And my husband and I go mountain biking a lot.”

From years of being a librarian, Briley has learned that the adage “Don’t judge a book by its cover” doesn’t just apply to books.

“I can sit here and say, I’m not going to judge you by the way that you look, but the truth of the matter is that you always make some sort of assumptions,” Briley said. “You just never know until you get to know a student what kind of book they’re going to like or anything. Forming those personal connections is the most important thing about my job. And I think just trying to learn myself and what my own maybe biases might be and just continually trying to get better.”

Briley avoids judging whether someone enjoys reading or the format of reading they choose to engage with.

“I think maybe if you just have that positive influence on them, maybe eventually they’ll get there,” Briley said. “Then I think we need to redefine what [reading is]. I think audiobooks are reading. I think magazines are reading. I think technical books for your career are reading. I think all reading is valid.”

In addition, she doesn’t judge the specific books or genres that students choose to read.

“If a senior wants to read ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid,’ I’m okay with that,” Briley said.

Ultimately, Briley’s goal is to create a welcoming and inclusive library for the diverse student body.

“When we display books, we try to make the books that we display reflective of our student body,” Briley said “I hope that everyone can come in and see themselves in not just the literature, but feel comfortable coming to me about whatever they might need.”