Media Specialist: Hannah Talley

School: City Park Elementary

District: Dalton Public Schools

Mrs. Hannah Talley is a library media specialist at City Park Elementary School in Dalton, Ga.

Hannah and I work closely together, as she is a colleague of mine. We meet once a month with

all the media specialists in our district and collaborate on planning events, technology

troubleshooting, inventory, and much more.

Hannah received her degree from West Georgia in 2005. She had previously received her

master’s degree in middle grades education, and went on to get certified in library media. Before

becoming a media specialist, she taught fifth grade, and decided to jump into the role of media

specialist because she felt drawn to it. As a classroom teacher, she spent a lot of time in the

media center and understood the importance of one.

I enjoyed learning about how she collaborates with her teachers, administrators and coaches in

her building. She is definitely an integral part of the leadership in her school, and strives to make

the media center the heart of City Park.

We discussed how the role of the media specialist is ever changing. She reminisced on how her

job was when she first began in the role. Her schedule has changed a lot under many different

administrators. She has never really had a flexible schedule. She has been in a specials rotation

or in a fixed schedule. We discussed how there are pros and cons from being a specials class.

Media centers definitely need flexible time to run the center.

I was comforted in the fact that she shared that teacher’s also give her a hard time when she

weeds books. This is something I have struggled with in my school, so it was nice to have that

conversation and get some insight as to how she handles that.