Blog

One of OUSD’s three newly re-opened school libraries in the 2023-24 school year is at Fremont High School, which has been previously unstaffed since the mid-2000s.

Jaelynn Wilson, Library Tech at Fremont High School

Fremont High’s librarian, Jaelynn Wilson, is a committed library advocate who serves both school libraries and Oakland Public Libraries.

Born and raised in Los Angeles in a Black and Mexican household, Jaelynn was taught to value education, and draws from her own adverse experiences in K-12 public schools to champion equitable, diverse, and inclusive spaces of learning. She transferred from Coliseum College Prep Academy to Fremont High School this school year, and has been hard at work transforming the space, freshening the extremely old connection with new resources, and connecting with students to understand how the library can best serve their needs. 

By the numbers

• Currently, Fremont’s collection totals 581 library books for a campus size of about 1,200; the recommendation for high school libraries is 20 books per student.
• The Elaine Wells Books Kids Want to Read award provided $2000 to get 86 much requested new titles for the library. 

To bridge the gap, Jaelynn ensures that all students know how to use Sora, OUSD’s digital library, for access to books and additional digital resources such as audiobooks and magazines.  Fremont high school also utilizes a partnership between the school library and OPL’s Melrose Branch, leading to additional book donations from the Melrose Neighborhood Council for our campus.

Next steps for Fremont’s Library

Jaelynn aims to continue weeding the old collection, facilitate additional funding for new books, and gain support from translators to assist in communicating with Arabic and Spanish speaking youth to understand how the library can best serve them. as well as students who speak Tongan, Pashto, Farsi, and many more languages. 

Volunteers can support Jaelynn by assisting with boxing and moving the old collection into storage and recycling. If you’d like to volunteer, contact Leigh at leigh@oaklandliteracycoalition.org.

About Jaelynn

Jaelynn sees the library as a place of and for freedom, such as the freedom to exist, the freedom to be curious, the freedom to delve into one’s individuality, the freedom to explore the lives of others, and the freedom to read what one chooses. She aims to write a book documenting her familial and personal experiences with the California school system and the role that libraries have played along the way.