Fred Weinberg, who retires at the end of this month after 39 years as the media specialist at Mt. Ararat High School, recently accepted the 2012 Walter J. Taranko School Library Media Specialist of the Year.

Peggy Becksvoort, past president of the Maine Association of School Libraries, coordinated with Mt. Ararat Principal Craig King to surprise Weinberg with the award at one of the last staff meetings of the school year. The award honors individuals who have made a significant contribution to the library media profession in Maine on the local or state levels.

“In nominating Weinberg for this award, it was noted that he has developed the library media curriculum and provides direct instruction to students in accessing and using a variety of online sources,” an announcement about the award states. “He consults with classroom teachers to ensure the curriculum and instruction support each other. Mr. Weinberg and the library support staff strive to help students by providing authoritative resources that are geared to their curricular needs.”

Despite budget cuts during the past four years, “not only has the library continued to provide quality service, but there is quantitative data that indicates electronic/technological services provided by the (library media center) have improved significantly,” the release states.

Weinberg received a certificate and plaque. As a result of the award, the media program at Mt. Ararat High School will receive $1,000 in Weinberg’s name.

Weinberg started at Mt. Ararat High School in 1973, the year the school opened.

A reception during the June 14 school board meeting honored Weinberg, along with other retiring School Administrative District 75 employees.

During the reception, Mt. Ararat High School English teacher Leonard Krill praised Weinberg. Krill said that when he arrived at Mt. Ararat in 1986, “it seemed as though Fred has been working with students and media since before forever.”

Krill went on to list a series of technical advances during Weinberg’s 39-year career. Weinberg, Krill said, “has mastered the film strip, the reel-to-reel tape recorder, the cassette tape, the 16-millimeter film projector, Kodak carousel, slide projectors with wired remotes, 35-millimeter DSL cameras, record players in tan fabric-colored cases with lids held on by pronged-snap clips, VHS players and video cameras, DV cameras, firewire buses, USB 1 and 2 buses, DVD players and burners, digital projectors of all sorts, phone tap recorders for research interviews, PA systems with tubes, and then the solid state; overhead projectors with lamps so hot you could cook an egg, and on, and on, and on.”

“And in doing all this,” Krill continued, “Fred has remained unfailingly excited about what can be accomplished with the education of students with all of this stuff; excited by any media technology that has come along that, in his considered and wellresearched judgment, offers real promise for kids, while at the same time staying endlessly polite and helpful and respectful of the over 10,000 students that Fred had taught and the hundreds of teachers that Fred has helped using all these technologies. It would be impossible to find a student or a teacher who could tell you a story of Fred getting impatient, much less angry, as he has worked to help us all who come charging down to the media center at the last moment desperate to get a piece of technology right now.”

All of this, Krill said, is why Weinberg was named the Walter J. Taranko School Library Media Specialist of the Year for 2012 by the Maine Association of School Libraries and is why those at Mt. Ararat “fear he’s irreplaceable. After 39 years at Mt. Ararat, Fred well deserves his retirement and we wish him all the best.”