Club Chat!: Meet Librarian Charles Atteberry!

Welcome back to Club Chat! Now I know what you’re thinking: “Danyla, the library isn’t a club. You goin’ crazy or what?” and I hear you on that, trust me. However, librarian Charles Atteberry has been doing some REAL cool stuff in the library lately, in addition to the new book club, so why don’t we give him some props for it?

Atteberry worked at King Elementary School for two years prior to coming to the high school. However, he’s always gravitated toward jobs in the education system as a librarian, bouncing around to different elementary and high schools in Central Illinois, including East Peoria Community High School and Bloomington Normal High School.

“The smallest high school I’ve worked at was around 120 students, but the biggest was around 1800 students,” he said.

He credits his renovations to the library to these previous experiences. His ideas came from “a lot of different sources. Things that have worked or not worked in previous schools and ideas that other people have given me,” Atteberry explained.

The changes that Atteberry has been making for our library has brought student engagement and staff interest together in creative and fun ways for everyone.

One of the main things he’s brought to UHS is our newfound, and popular, book club!

“Originally, I got the idea for doing book club a long time ago while I was at my first school and even before in the classes I took in graduate school. So when I got my first position I thought I’d give it a try,” he said as he reminisced with a light in his eye that only a truly passionate educator has.

This special edition of Club Chat has given me the privilege to get to know our librarian a little better than I did before. Take this as your fleeting reminder to get to know the teachers around you instead of simply getting used to the teachers around you. Maybe start with Atteberry while you check out a book or book club!

Be on the lookout for our next edition of Club Chat on The UHS Echo website!