MILO – A chat with Nancy Grant is a learning experience.

Grant, 63, library media specialist at Penquis Valley School, is a wealth of information and she’s very willing to share what she has learned.

Her efforts to improve all minds, along with her ability to encourage students to become lifelong learners, her love of teaching and mentoring, her knack for incorporating technology into daily classroom lessons and her passion for reading contributed to her being named the 2007 Walter J. Taranko School Library Media Specialist of the Year by the Maine Association of School Libraries.

Taranko, who was an employee of the Maine State Library, served as a mentor to librarians throughout the state. With the recognition earlier this month came a $500 donation to the school in Grant’s honor and a plaque.

“Surprised,” was how Grant coined her response to the award, but it certainly came as no surprise to her students and cohorts at Penquis Valley where she has taught for 12 years.

Grant is very deserving of the award, Principal Scott Gordon, who submitted her nomination, said Tuesday.

“For a veteran educator, she’s not afraid to try new things; she really models what we hope every student becomes – a lifelong learner,” Gordon said. Some people who have a wealth of information don’t want to share the information because it makes them feel superior, he said. “She’s exactly the opposite, she has all this information and she wants to put it out there to make us all stronger.”

Comfortable in her combination classroom and library, Grant works one-on-one with students as they glean information from computers.

“She’s a great library teacher,” said Brandon Smith, a sophomore. “Whenever I need help, she comes and helps me; she doesn’t tell me to hold on,” he said Tuesday.

Having to navigate so many sites for information is sometimes frustrating, but Grant helps soothe that frustration level, according to Spencer Leavitt, a freshman.

Students hail her expertise, but so do the teachers at her school. English teacher Heather Webb was a student of Grant’s when she was a student at Penquis Valley School.

“It’s a very rewarding experience to be able to have Nancy as a teacher and then have her as a co-worker,” Webb said. “Nancy was very important to me as a student because she’s very insightful and she has an uncanny ability to see what people need whether they are age 16 or 65.”

Having served in education for 27 years, Grant said technology has changed but the quest for learning has remained the same. Her method of teaching, however, has evolved with the changes.

“Instead of talking to them [her students], I talk with them and facilitate their learning more from where they are at the moment,” Grant said.

With the world at their fingertips, Grant encourages students to find a pen pal on the computer, a move that could help foster peace. “If a student can have an e-mail pal in a foreign country as they grow, they’re less likely to start a war in that country,” she explained.

It is those efforts that set Grant apart from others, according to those who know her.

“You look at any school and it’s really about the people inside and what they bring to the table for the students, and it’s really a coup to have her at Penquis Valley,” Gordon said.