April 4 was Librarian Appreciation Day, a holiday to celebrate the faces of Tracy High School’s library: library technicians Cyndee Perez and Virginia “Gina” Castro-Crawford.

Tracy High School’s library has transformed in recent years with the help of Crawford and Perez. They aim to foster an inviting space on campus.

“It’s the students that keep me here,” Crawford said. “Just giving them that space… talking about books with them—you know, encouraging them to read.”

“Being able to provide information, helping students figure out what they need… also just trying to get them to have a love of reading,” is what Perez enjoys about her role.

Library technicians handle the clerical work of the library, such as ordering books, collecting fines, inputting information and filling out reports. They also schedule classes to receive or drop off books.

“I love that they’re helpful and nice,” senior Sanha Helmandi said. “I’m able to talk with them easily and interact with them.”

The library is busiest during the start and end of the year when textbooks are administered to students.

“We see students at least twice a year,” Crawford explained.

Perez and Crawford try to hold events and decorate displays throughout the library monthly.

“It’s hard to get new students to read,” Crawford said, explaining the reason behind the events. “We have Women’s History, Valentine’s Day, there’s Poetry, Black History Month.”

Events typically offer prizes or food, but funding is limited.

“They’re [TUSD] getting better about funding stuff, but I guess they don’t want to fund food,” Crawford added. “A lot of the stuff comes out of pocket,” she chuckled.

At public libraries, where Perez worked prior to joining Tracy High School, they offered different events and programs.

“I would do storytimes, I had an Art for Little Hands class… I taught adults how to use a Cricut machine,” Perez explained.

While she misses programming at public libraries, she loves working at a school.

“Education has always been important to me, and if I can spark a love of reading or a love of learning, that’s my ultimate goal,” she added.

Both library technicians had previous work experiences different from the clerical work they do today.

Perez has been working in libraries since 2011, but in her first career, she was a paralegal for 20 years.

“I was raising kids,” she laughed. “So I needed a job that was going to have the income to help me raise my kids the way I wanted.”

She described both careers as “night and day.”

“There are different levels of stress, but it’s not bad stress,” she said. “Our stress here in the library is making sure we can serve students and provide them what they need, but there’s only two of us.”

Perez hopes to complete her master’s degree soon.

“I love the library and everything about it… kids come in as freshmen and you can watch them grow and turn into adults,” she said.

Crawford previously worked at a gym in Tracy and can recognize students who used to frequent the gym as young children.

While Tracy High School’s library used to have a library teacher, whose main role was teaching, the position was not utilized as often as the librarian technician role and was let go this year.