Librarian's creative plea for books gets clicks

By PAMELA WILLISWednesday June 17, 2015 9:53 AM

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Liberty Elementary School librarian Mary Evelyn Smith recently produced a YouTube video based on the song All About That Bass to remind her students to return their libraryLiberty Elementary School librarian Mary Evelyn Smith proved she's "All About Them Books" by creating a parody song and video to Meghan Trainor's song, All About That Bass, as a plea for students to return overdue books to the school library.

The video has had more than 61,000 views so far onYouTube since it was posted late last month -- and more than 1 million views on other websites.

Smith dances, raps and sings in the video while Liberty teachers and several students act in scenarios where they are either dancing in the library, reading books, returning them or deftly avoiding Smith as she tries to recover books and fines.

Considering she came to Worthington after 10 years in Nashville, Tenn., music comes naturally to Smith, although she is not a music teacher.

"I don't have a music background -- I'm a English major," Smith said. "I did sing in my church choir and did a lot of musical theater in high school, but I only sing for fun."

She said the video was fun to film.

"I pulled kids out of class when they had a few spare moments, but didn't tell them what it was for," she said. "I handed them books and said, 'Just stand in front of this shelf and dance for five seconds.' I told them it was a surprise."

Liberty teachers also were happy to appear in several cameos.

"I sent them all emails and told them what I was going to do, but said they didn't have to participate, but we had 100 percent participation," Smith said. "I filmed each teacher for five seconds of footage."

After six years at Liberty, Smith has surprised students more than once as she puts in a plea for overdue books at the end of each school year.

"The kids are used to me singing on the announcements in the morning, about bringing books back and about all the fines they will have to pay," she said. "Last year, I changed the words to the song fromFrozen to remind them about overdue books.

"This year, I stepped it up a little and did the parody to All About That Bass," she said.

In the video, Smith tells students, "You know, I'm all about them books, 'bout them books, no kidding ... yes, I'm all about them books, no kidding ... Your teacher, she told you, to bring your books back in time, because librarians don't mess around, when it comes to fines ... You know you've still got my Magic Tree House and my Junie B -- did you leave them at Grandma's because you know those books aren't free ..."

Smith wrote, directed and edited the video, a skill she said she learned by posting family videos on her blog at whatdoyoudodear.com, begun as a way to connect with other parents who have children born with spina bifida or other health challenges. Her 3-year-old son, Simeon, was born with spina bifida and uses a wheelchair. She and her husband, Greg, also have a 4-month-old daughter, Frances.

She said overdue books are the bane of her last weeks of school.

When asked if the video helped to recover more books, Smith laughed.

"No, not really," she said. "I did recover a few more (books) after I posted the video, but there were still quite a few I did not see when school ended."

She said the Liberty students and teachers are "family" now, though.

"I feel like we take care of each other, making sure everyone is healthy and happy," she said. "We have a great bunch of kids and a fun group -- there were a lot of natural hams in our video."

Smith said teachers have to work hard sometimes to fit more creativity around required lessons.

"A lot has changed and it is difficult to fit in that creative stuff, but kids respond to it and it gets them excited about coming to school," she said.

Smith had to get extra-creative during the last week of school, when books are not permitted to be checked out.

"We did something I learned from Brookside librarian Nellie Schmidt: I turned out the lights and we had reading in the dark," she said. "Our library has no windows, so we shut the doors and blocked the window in the door so kids could tuck themselves into a corner with a flashlight and a book.

"They loved it and thought it was so exciting to be reading in such a different environment," she said.

Smith also conducted paperback-book exchanges and poetry slams during the school year.

"We are also on the computers a lot, especially when we were preparing for the PARCC tests," she said. "I try to incorporate fun events whenever possible, too, though, to keep kids excited about reading."