Librarian Highlight: CSLA’s Jennifer Fields
September 22, 2026 – The best day in the library, according to Jennifer Fields, is not the quiet one. It is when the shelves are a little messy, the book cart is full, and the return bin is overflowing. That is how Fields, the librarian at Chattanooga School for the Liberal Arts (CSLA), knows it has truly been a good day.
“That’s when I know that the kids have been in here and reading,” she says.
As the librarian at a K-12 school, Fields gets to see a variety of learning happening. With elementary through high school students coming in and out daily, her library can look a little different from one moment to the next. She might be reading a book to elementary students while middle school students are dropping in to find their next read, and high school students are eating lunch in the back or catching up on work. This is exactly the kind of environment where Fields thrives.
“There’s always something going on,” she says. “I just love the constant turnaround, and the fact that there are so many different age groups in here at one time.”
Fields has spent right around 22 years in education, including 15 as a librarian. Her path to becoming one was simple: She always loved books. She began her career in elementary school, and when a librarian position opened at her school, her principal moved her right in. “It was everything I liked about teaching, but my favorite subject, which was the books, I could do the science experiments and the social studies along with it, so it was just kind of the best of all worlds.”
Another one of her favorite parts of being a librarian is the relationships she gets to build with students over time. Because of her position at a K-12 school, she gets to build those relationships from their first day of kindergarten all the way up to their high school graduation. Fields can watch them grow from young readers into high school students with very different interests, personalities, and books that they check out.
“I really get to know my students, and it’s so fun to see them change and grow, and then what they like to read changes and grows,” she says. One of the best parts is watching what happens after a student finds a book they love.
“They’ll come talk to me about it, they’ll talk to their classmates about it, they just want to keep coming back and telling me about the next part of their book,” Fields says. “Just seeing their face light up. I love when they connect with an author, or a character.”
Fields doesn’t believe in a one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to books either. She uses her relationship with the students to see what sort of stories interest them and what type of book they are looking for. “It’s a case by case. I don’t have a go-to or a one-size-fits-all.”
However, if she had to pick one book for every student to read at least once, she says she would pick A Snicker of Magic by Tennessee author Natalie Lloyd. She helped make it part of CSLA’s fifth-grade curriculum, and loves that it combines so many things she values about reading. “It teaches about empathy, it’s magical, and it takes place in Tennessee. I just love that book. I wish every kid would read that one.”
When asked if there was one book she could put into every school library in the district, she responded in the same way that guided more of her thinking: there is not one book that will connect with every student. Instead, she would make sure there is at least one book in every library that each child can connect with. Whether that means they see themselves reflected in a character or discover an experience that helps them better understand themselves or others, Fields wants every student to have the opportunity to find a book that speaks to them.
For Fields, books have always had a way of growing with her. A few of her memorable childhood picks were The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Trumpet of the Swan, From the Mixed-Up Files of Basil E. Frankweiler, and books by Judy Blume. As she got older, her list grew to include Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, The Inheritance Games, and Twilight.
“There was a book for every stage of my development. There was a book that I could go to and find out about what’s happening to me, or just about life.” This is why she sees literacy as something bigger than just reading. Through books, students can experience places they have never visited, meet characters who are completely different from or even very similar to themselves, and explore situations and emotions they might not fully understand.
“You can try out new personalities if you are figuring out who you are or want to be. You can go on adventures with someone who’s really bold, and it gives you bravery,” Fields says. “Or grieve with someone, and learn empathy.”
Her love of learning and her care for each individual child make it no surprise that she was recognized as the 2026 SDCL Read 20 Librarian of the Year. What Fields does think would surprise her students to know is just how much their small gestures mean to her. “I hope that they all can feel how much I love them. I think if they knew how much their little notes and gifts, and the fact that they want to come in and talk to me, mean to me; I think that would surprise them.”
This year, Fields is looking forward to more of the things that make her library feel like her library: Lunch Book Clubs, new Makerspace crafts, and the escape games she loves creating for her students. But underneath all of those activities is something much simpler. Fields wants her library to be a place where students know they belong.
Her goal is not simply to get students to finish a book. It is also to help them find a place where they feel comfortable, curious, and understood. “I hope when they leave, if nothing else, they know that they’re loved. That this is a place where they can escape, either to read a book, or just to be quiet, and that they feel safe here, that they feel seen, and that they know that I really care about them as a whole person.”
And maybe that is why, for Fields, a library at its best is not perfectly quiet or perfectly organized. Sometimes the full book cart, messy shelves, and overflowing return bin tell the better story. They mean students were there, books were being discovered, conversations were happening, and the library was doing exactly what Fields hopes it will do: giving students a place to read, explore, connect, and feel at home.
