Betts accepts MAME president nomination

Elementary Library Facilitator Carrie Betts recently accepted the nomination to become the president-elect of the Michigan Association of School Librarians starting January 2023.

Betts currently serves as the resident librarian at West Maple Elementary. She will continue in her role at Birmingham Public Schools while going through the leadership program for MASL, which recently changed its name from Michigan Association for Media & Education.

“I just want to thank the BPS school board, the BPS central leadership team, and Jason Pesamoska, my principal, and the teachers that I work with for allowing and encouraging me to pursue this role in order to more broadly support the K12 students in Michigan, for access to information within their school environments,” Betts said.

Betts will enter a three-year leadership role with the organization, which serves school librarians and school library professionals by organizing a professional learning community that provides a form of sharing of ideas, best practices and curriculum. She served on the general board, the executive board as the vice president of continuing education and as the chair of the MASL Summer Institute.

She began serving with MASL several years ago due to her ongoing concern with the reduction of school libraries. Less than 50% of K-12 students in Michigan has access to a school library that’s managed or curated by a certified librarian.

We encourage experts in our field to share education and leadership conferences in Michigan and nationally to share the work that we do to ensure that our K12 students are not only capable of searching for resources and reading those resources, but that they are able to be critical readers discerning truth in an age of misinformation and an age where there is 24/7 feed,” Betts said.

In addition, Betts recently represented the state at the American Library Association Conference in nation’s capital, joining a team of librarians to present Michigan’s model school library program.