Walk into an elementary school library today, and you’ll find plenty of books.
You’ll also find students learning how to ask good questions, distinguish fact from fiction, conduct research, navigate artificial intelligence, and make sense of a digital world overflowing with information.
Helping students develop those skills means school librarians must continually learn and adapt.
That’s why 19 Canyons District elementary school librarians spent the 2025-2026 school year hitting the books themselves as the inaugural cohort of Utah State University’s new Certificate in Para-Librarianship.
The first-of-its-kind partnership gave CSD’s para-librarians access to three master’s-level courses designed to introduce them to many of the principles, standards, and instructional strategies taught to fully licensed librarians.
“When I first started this job I felt like the school librarian was I read books to students and teach them to love reading, which is an important part of our jobs,” said Lisa Petersen, a Brain Booster technician at Peruvian Park Elementary. “But through this program I have learned how actually what we learn and do in the library connects directly to classrooms.”
Over the year-long program, Canyons librarians studied those challenges while exploring topics ranging from inquiry-based learning and media literacy to dynamic shelving, a practice used to make books more visible and inviting to young readers.
The training emboldened paralibrarians to reach out to teachers to see how they could help individual students to reach their literacy goals.
“I had a student who would not check a book out,” said Dawn Sutherland at Glacier Hills Elementary. “I was meeting with a teacher about her class and I asked her if there was anything I could throw at him that might get him interested. She told me he liked skateboarding, but said, ‘You probably don’t have books about skateboarding.’”
The library did, however, have plenty of skateboarding books, and as soon as Sutherland introduced them to the student, his face lit up. Soon enough, he was returning for more books and exploring new reading interests.
The partnership grew from a grant secured by Kelli Munns, a Professional Practice Professor at Utah State University.
Munns initially had other plans for the funding. Then USU graduate student Liz Miles suggested using it to address a need in Utah schools: providing some of the foundational training taught in master’s-level library programs to the paraeducators and technicians who staff many elementary school libraries.
From that conversation, Utah State’s Instructional Teaching and Learning Sciences Department Certificate in Para-Librarianship was born.
Choosing to pilot this certificate with Canyons School District was “a no-brainer,” Munns said, “because of their leadership.”
There was also the potential for enormous reach, impacting thousands of students.
Elementary librarians are among the “few adults in the school who see every student every day,” Munns said.
For Canyons Library Media Specialist Gretchen Zaitzeff, the partnership fulfilled a vision she has been working toward since joining the District.
“When I started here at Canyons, I had a goal with three pillars: keep our libraries open longer so students can more easily access them, update our library collections, and find ways to better support our librarians with quality training,” Zaitzeff said. “This was the third and final pillar to be achieved.”
The certificate required hours of coursework, assignments, reading, collaboration, and reflection outside their regular responsibilities.
“I loved the practicum,” said Nina Jenson from Peruvian Park. “Going to other librarians, more experienced librarians, and seeing the way they organize their space and then watching them teach and getting ideas for classroom management, and asking questions. ..I was able to immediately take this wealth of ideas back to my library.”
The investment wasn’t intended to end when the coursework did. The inaugural group now returns to Canyons schools with a shared body of knowledge that can be passed along to colleagues.
At an August ceremony recognizing those who completed the program, Canyons Instructional Supports Assistant Director Kenna Sorensen encouraged principals to see the graduates as more than library technicians. “I hope you look at the librarians who completed this program as leaders in your schools,” Sorensen said.
That leadership role may become even more important as the information landscape continues to change.
Inaugural Recipients of USU’s ITLS Department Certificate in Para-Librarianship
Jessica Brown, Midvale Elementary
Becky Harris, Midvale Elementary
Shannon Brown, Granite Elementary
Stephanie Campbell, Crescent Elementary
Emily Dyler, Crescent Elementary
Cathy Collins, Canyon View Elementary
Heather Erickson, East Midvale Elementary
Kimberly Falkner, Silver Mesa Elementary
Candace Johnson, Silver Mesa Elementary
Lacey Haycock, Park Lane Elementary
Nina Jenson, Peruvian Park Elementary
Lisa Petersen, Peruvian Park Elementary
Sara Lee, Sprucewood Elementary
Lindsey Manning, Ridgecrest Elementary
Leesa Mansouri, Sunrise Elementary
Laura Naluai, Oak Hollow Elementary
Telima Smith, Glacier Hills Elementary
Dawn Sutherland, Glacier Hills Elementary
Anna Swallow, Willow Springs Elementary
