Episode 6: Comparison Is Expensive with Rebeca Fox

What if the reason your library program feels like it's falling short is that you're building someone else's?

In this episode of The Library Stage, Amanda Hunt welcomes Rebeca Fox, known as The Fox Reads on social media, a Texas high school librarian with nearly a decade in libraries and twelve years in the classroom before that, spanning elementary, middle, and high school. Fox takes the stage with the best library advice she ever received, from a fellow librarian who runs an honest-to-goodness garden inside his school: find what you're passionate about, what you're actually good at, and build your program out of that. Because the enthusiasm is the part that's contagious--not the program itself.

Pillar: 🩵 Discovery

Plus, Fox's Curtain Call:

• 🛠️ Edtech Tools: Her library resources: Teacher Pay Teacher store, her link in bio, her store on Librarians Teach
• 💡 Steal-this-idea: Get yourself on the campus leadership team. You'll learn more about what's actually happening on your campus than you ever will from inside the library and you'll be in the room when decisions about your program get made.

Follow Fox: 📬thefoxreads@gmail.com @thefoxreads on IG, TikTok , Youtube and Bluesky

Think your library story belongs on the stage? Pitch your talk: thenextgenlib@gmail.com

Hosted by Amanda Hunt, MLS (@TheNextGenLibrarian) 🌐 thenextgenlibrarian.com

#TheLibraryStage #SchoolLibrarians #TaketheStage #LibraryAdvocacy #NewLibrarian #SchoolLibrary #TeacherLibrarian #LibrarianLife

Episode 5: Escape Rooms Are Curriculum with Maegen Cockrell

What if the reason your big library event flopped had nothing to do with the event and everything to do with the timing of the ask?

In this episode of The Library Stage, Amanda Hunt welcomes Maegen Cockrell, high school librarian at Killeen High School and district lead librarian for high schools in Killeen ISD, now in her fourteenth year in education and sixth as a librarian. Maegen shares the two-year arc that changed how she builds library programming: a fully decorated Christmas escape room that drew exactly one group, followed by a benchmark-review escape room built at a teacher's request that pulled in nearly every student in the room. Her takeaway is one every librarian can use tomorrow: when the escape room is the review day, buy-in stops being something you beg for.

⚡️ Note: a storm knocked out power mid-recording, so this episode runs shorter than our usual 18 minutes. The format's not changing — the weather just had opinions.

Pillar: 🩵 Discovery

🎁 Steal these: Maegen is sharing two complete escape rooms, instructions included.

• 🔓 High school benchmark review escape room — rhyme scheme, figurative language, satire, irony, Morse code, and a custom library map
• 🔓 Third grade scaffolded version — author's purpose, figurative language, story elements, and an alphabet cipher

Plus, stick around for her Curtain Call featuring:

• 📖 Maegen's book recommendations — If We Never End by Laura Taylor Namey, Scammer by Tiffany D. Jackson, and Killing Sadie by Rachel Peterson (out August 4)

Follow Maegen: 📱 TikTok: @megmercedes | Instagram: @ms.c_histteach

Think your library story belongs on the stage? Pitch your talk: thenextgenlib@gmail.com

Hosted by Amanda Hunt, MLS (@TheNextGenLibrarian) 🌐 thenextgenlibrarian.com

#TheLibraryStage #SchoolLibrarians #TaketheStage #EscapeRoom #BreakoutEDU #LibraryProgramming #SecondaryLibrary #ElementaryLibrary #TeacherCollaboration #DiscoveryTalk

Episode 4: Advocacy Through Grant Writing with Christine Szeluga

What if the funding for your dream library program is already out there, and no one has applied for it?

In this episode of The Library Stage, Amanda Hunt welcomes Christine Szeluga, Librarian/Library Media Specialist at Cranford High School in Cranford, New Jersey, where she leads innovative programming that integrates research, media literacy, and technology.

She shares how school librarians can turn grant writing into a form of advocacy, where to look for the money that's already sitting on the table, and why applying to present at a conference belongs in the same conversation. Christine's work has been recognized with ALA's "I Love My Librarian" Award (2026), the AASL 'Miss Honey' Social Justice Award (2025), the NJASC High School Advisor of the Year Award (2025), and the NCHE Paul Gagnon Prize (2014).

Pillar: 🧡 Edtech

Plus, stick around for her Curtain Call featuring:

• 📖 Christine's ⁠book recommendation⁠ — All Boys Aren't Blue by George M. Johnson, the title behind her first-ever book challenge
• 🛠️ Her favorite tool: ⁠Ancestry Classroom K–12⁠
• 💡 Steal This Idea: Local History: pick one historical thing in your community and turn students loose on it. Scale it as big or small as you want.
• 💡 Steal This Idea #2: An intergenerational book club

Resources: Grants & Awards Worth Your Application

National library organizations: ⁠AASL Grants & Awards⁠ (conference proposals open Nov 2026) | ⁠ALA Grants & Awards⁠ | ⁠Thinking Money for Kids⁠ | ⁠Pokémon Clubs at Your Library⁠ | ⁠Will Eisner Graphic Novel Grants for Libraries⁠ | Friends of the Library (501c3s — check yours) | ⁠Donors Choose⁠

State & local (check your own state's equivalents): NJLA Mini-Grants | NJASL | NJEA PEP/FAST Grants

Subject-area organizations: ⁠NCTE REALM Award for Student Publication⁠ | ⁠NCHE⁠ — conference proposals + the Paul A. Gagnon Prize | ⁠NCSS Awards & Grants⁠ | ⁠National History Day⁠ — judge or enter students; very supportive of new schools

Student leadership: National Association of Student Councils | NJASC (check your local association)

Follow Christine: 📱 Instagram: @cranfordhighlibrary 💼 ⁠LinkedIn⁠ 📩 christineszeluga@gmail.com

Hosted by Amanda Hunt, MLS (@TheNextGenLibrarian) 🌐 thenextgenlibrarian.com

#TheLibraryStage #SchoolLibrarians #TakeTheStage #GrantWriting #LibraryAdvocacy #SchoolLibrary #Libraries #DiscoveryTalk