Catherine Fraser

When Cathy Fraser left the Human Resources field in 1998, she knew that, although she loved it, she would never return to it. As a way to do activities in the community with her young daughter, she developed a Story Hour program for three- to five-year-olds at the Gilman Library in Alton, New Hampshire, where she found her true passion. She returned to school, earning an MLIS degree from the University of Rhode Island. She was fortunate to be hired at Alton Central School as the librarian in 2003. When the high school separated and formed Prospect Mountain High School (PMHS) with the town of Barnstead, NH a year later, Cathy went to PMHS, where she has been the librarian for ever since.

Wanting to do more to increase literacy on the secondary level, Cathy returned to school at the University of New Hampshire (UNH), earning an MEd in Reading in 2012. She holds certifications as a Reading and Writing Specialist and Secondary English teacher in addition to Library Media Specialist.

In 2013, Cathy began working with a group of faculty at UNH on improving college readiness. She and her partners in the School-University Dialogues Group conducted an action research project on identifying how secondary and college students’ research skills, particularly writing, could be improved. In 2014, PMHS hired Linda Rief as a consultant to work with faculty on improving writing. The confluence of these two events along with the increase in computers entering PMHS, informed her practice and prompted her to pick up a pen and notebook and begin writing.

Cathy’s professional interests include assessment, inquiry and project-based learning (PBL), and increasing literacy for all. She believes that it is important that people read, ask questions, and learn how to learn. In addition to managing the PMHS library, Cathy team teaches a Freshman Seminar class with two of her faculty colleagues and the Technology Integrator.