Leslie Donnelly is a Media Specialist at DeMasi Middle School in Marlton, New Jersey. DeMasi Middle School has over 800 sixth, seventh and eight grade students and is one of two middle schools in the Evesham Township School District. The DeMasi Middle School Library Media Center contains over 14,000 printed volumes, audiovisual software and CD-ROM information sources. The catalog and circulation systems are automated using Winnebago software, and the media center is fully networked with the computer labs and classrooms in the school.

The mission of the media center is to support the curriculum and to provide resources and instruction in information processing skills. The Media Specialist has three roles: information specialist, teacher and instructional consultant. Leslie performs media center operations such as ordering, cataloging, and processing of materials, answering reference questions, as well as teaching classes to groups and instructing individual students, and working with teachers to develop lessons.

Leslie has a B.S. in mathematics from Carnegie-Mellon University, a Ed.M. in secondary mathematics education from Temple University and a M.L.S. in library science from Drexel University. She taught high school mathematics in Philadelphia before obtain her library degree. She had always been fascinated by libraries, and especially by the many unusual private libraries in Philadelphia. "When studying at Drexel," she recalls, "library automation was still a thing of the future, but my background in mathematics was useful in some computer programming and systems analysis courses I took."

She has worked as a reference librarian for the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, Rutgers University and Drexel University. She has been a media specialist for seven years, having worked with kindergarten through eighth grade students.

"One of the things I like about working in a school media center is that you get the best of both worlds," Leslie notes. "I never have a dull moment when I'm working with students, and I still have the fun of answering interesting reference questions which is my first love."

"I really can't say that there are any particular mathematics skills that are necessary for my job. As in any management job, you have to like to solve problems, and I guess my mathematics background helps me out in that respect."

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