When the right person is hired, there is a story...
Well, actually, two stories: the employer’s story of the search for
the best applicant, and the new employee’s story of his or her job
search.
These stories begin apart and can cover weeks or even months with
multiple steps and behind-the-scenes activities before converging in the
new hire’s first day, when a new story begins.
This month we’re interviewing Krissa Corbett Cavouras, a recent hire at the Brooklyn Public Library, about her experience applying for the position of Engagement Manager in Marketing & Communications.
Ellen Mehling: Where did you go to school? What degrees and/or certificates do you hold?
Krissa Corbett Cavouras: I attended Sarah Lawrence for my
undergraduate degree and earned my masters from Pratt School of
Information and Library Science (SILS) in 2011.
EM: Were you employed elsewhere when you applied for this job? For how long had you been job hunting?
KCC: I was working for a small e-commerce company, as a knowledge
manager on their marketing team, for two years prior to starting at
Brooklyn Public Library. I had probably been actively looking for about
three months when I had my first interview here.
EM: How did you learn about the position? Did you have any connections via your network to that workplace?
KCC: I heard about the position on a couple of fronts -- first,
because I’ve had Brooklyn Public Library’s job page bookmarked for
years, ever since I graduated from library school! Second, my manager
Robin and I have several mutual friends from our early days as bloggers,
so I saw the job shared around that mutual circle on Facebook. (I do
think that’s how I knew it was in serious recruitment, because sometimes
you don’t know from a website job posting if it’s a really open
position.) I also have several library school colleagues who now work in
the system, although I don’t think I saw this specific posting on my
library school listserv. read more...
Showing posts with label Library Students. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Library Students. Show all posts
Thursday, August 6, 2015
Monday, August 5, 2013
How to Land a Library Job
How to Land a Library Job
The library job market may finally be heating up, but so too is the competition for those jobs
Aug 02, 2013
 |  |
I don’t claim to be an expert in much, but when it comes to securing a library job I’ve got hard-won advice worth sharing. For much of my career I suffered from a kind of librarian wanderlust, switching jobs every two or three years, which pretty much means that I spent my first 20 years in this profession engaged in a continuous job search. But I’ve also put in plenty of time on the other side of the interview table, having hired scores of librarians while managing libraries large and small, as well as hiring librarians as editors, back when I worked in publishing.
Although the economy is slowly climbing out of its sinkhole, don’t expect finding a library position to get easier any time soon. State funding is under pressure, and local funding—which now makes up nearly the entire budget of your typical public library—remains flat at best. Although there are more job openings in 2013 than in previous years, there is also more competition for those positions. Jobseekers, especially those looking for their first librarian positions, need to have their game faces on. Read article...
PW contributing editor Brian Kenney.
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Event - Webinar: Librarianship as an "Avocational Vocation" - Advice for new professionals METRO [Free]
Speaker Char Booth
Riser, devoted oceanite, and advocate of radical neutrality, Char Booth explores the integration of education, research, technology, and design in libraries. Char is the Instruction Services Manager and E-Learning Librarian at the Claremont Colleges, and is on the faculty of the ACRL Information Literacy Immersion Institute. An ALA Emerging Leader and Library Journal Mover and Shaker, Char blogs at info-mational and tweets at @charbooth. Her publications include Reflective Teaching, Effective Learning: Instructional Literacy for Library Educators (ALA Editions, 2011) and Informing Innovation: Tracking Student Interest in Emerging Library Technologies (ACRL, 2009). Char received a BA in History from Reed College in 2001; an MSIS from the UT Austin School of Information in 2005, and a Master of Computer Education and Technology from Ohio University in 2008.
In this second installment of the METRO / ACRL/NY New Professionals Series, Char Booth, Instruction Services Manager and E-Learning Librarian at the Claremont Colleges, converses with Jason Kucsma, Executive Director of the Metropolitan New York Library Council.
This webinar will focus on building a solid reputation through writing, publishing, and public presentations. Char has published and presented on many topics, including library instruction, the future of access, and using technology to facilitate a positive library experience. Please join us to hear from Char on these subjects and more.
Who should attend:
Librarians new to the field, LIS students, and anyone interested in learning more about the future of librarianship. Read more and register...
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Nico Carver …In Six | INALJ (I Need a Library Job)
Nico Carver …In Six | INALJ (I Need a Library Job)
Reposted from 5/2/12
My interview with success story Nico
Naomi: How did you find your current job?
Nico: I first saw the job listed on the inalj daily digest! I immediately knew I wanted to apply. Over the next few days, many of my colleagues sent me the same job posting. I made sure to have many sources of information in my job hunt, so that no opportunity would be missed. It’s good to have a safety net!
Naomi: Favorite library you have been to?
Nico: I like small libraries. My favorite is the Pondok Pekak Lending Library in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia. When I was studying abroad, Pondok Pekak was my only source of books in English. The smaller selection of materials made me much more likely to browse and read books I wouldn’t have found otherwise. Some examples that profoundly impacted my thinking: Kōbō Abe’s Woman in the Dunes, Gregory Bateson’s Steps to an Ecology of Mind, Lynn Margulis’s Symbiosis as a Source of Evolutionary Innovation. Read MORE...
Reposted from 5/2/12
My interview with success story Nico
Naomi: How did you find your current job?
Nico: I first saw the job listed on the inalj daily digest! I immediately knew I wanted to apply. Over the next few days, many of my colleagues sent me the same job posting. I made sure to have many sources of information in my job hunt, so that no opportunity would be missed. It’s good to have a safety net!
Naomi: Favorite library you have been to?
Nico: I like small libraries. My favorite is the Pondok Pekak Lending Library in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia. When I was studying abroad, Pondok Pekak was my only source of books in English. The smaller selection of materials made me much more likely to browse and read books I wouldn’t have found otherwise. Some examples that profoundly impacted my thinking: Kōbō Abe’s Woman in the Dunes, Gregory Bateson’s Steps to an Ecology of Mind, Lynn Margulis’s Symbiosis as a Source of Evolutionary Innovation. Read MORE...
Monday, August 27, 2012
Book Scholarship for NYC Library School Students | Urban Librarians Unite
Book Scholarship for NYC Library School Students | Urban Librarians Unite
Write the best essay and you get $200 for books and supplies for your MLS/MSLIS degree!
What is the role of the librarian in the city?
Urban Librarians Unite is sponsoring an essay contest to award a book scholarship to one student pursuing a library/information sciences degree in New York City. The contest is simple, write an essay on the topic above: What is the role of the librarian in the city? Read more
Book Scholarship for NYC Library School Students
What is the role of the librarian in the city?
Urban Librarians Unite is sponsoring an essay contest to award a book scholarship to one student pursuing a library/information sciences degree in New York City. The contest is simple, write an essay on the topic above: What is the role of the librarian in the city? Read more
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Librarians Abroad: Lynn Yarmey, Data Curator | Peer to Peer Review
Librarians Abroad: Lynn Yarmey, Data Curator | Peer to Peer Review
By on August 23, 2012
My students are their own people; what makes them amazing comes from them, not me. I see them for two or three semesters at most. Still they enrich my life considerably, and when I manage to enrich theirs in return, I’m happy.
With the “Librarians Abroad” series, I’d like to introduce Library Journal readers to various information professionals who were once my students. I’m intentionally choosing professionals who work either entirely outside libraries and archives, or who hold somewhat less traditional positions inside libraries and archives. I don’t believe all the doom-and-gloom talk about libraries, librarians, and the MLS; I prefer to demonstrate the expanded and still-expanding horizons of the information professions.
(If I once taught you, and you fit this rubric, drop me a line! I’d be pleased to interview you.)
It is my honor and my pleasure, then, to introduce Lynn Yarmey, who bravely took a chance on my first-time “topics in collection development” course at the University of Illinois. Read whole article.
By on August 23, 2012
My students are their own people; what makes them amazing comes from them, not me. I see them for two or three semesters at most. Still they enrich my life considerably, and when I manage to enrich theirs in return, I’m happy.
With the “Librarians Abroad” series, I’d like to introduce Library Journal readers to various information professionals who were once my students. I’m intentionally choosing professionals who work either entirely outside libraries and archives, or who hold somewhat less traditional positions inside libraries and archives. I don’t believe all the doom-and-gloom talk about libraries, librarians, and the MLS; I prefer to demonstrate the expanded and still-expanding horizons of the information professions.
(If I once taught you, and you fit this rubric, drop me a line! I’d be pleased to interview you.)
Lynn Yarmey
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Rare Book School at the University of Virginia - NYTimes.com
Rare Book School at the University of Virginia - NYTimes.com
By JENNIFER SCHUESSLER
Published: July 23, 2012
 |
Jessica Pigza, an assistant curator for the New York Public Library's Rare Book Division, uses a magnifying glass to determine the type of leather used on a book cover.
|
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — On a steamy morning last week Mark Dimunation, the chief of the rare book and special collections division at the Library of Congress, was in a windowless basement room here at the University of Virginia, leading a dozen people in a bibliophile’s version of the wave.
Related
-
ArtsBeat: The Rare Book Scholar's Secret Weapon (July 24, 2012)
He lined up the group and handed each person a sheet of copier paper with a syllable written on it. After a few halting practice runs — “Hip-na-rah-toe ...” — the group successfully shouted out, “ ‘Hypnerotomachia Poliphili,’ 1499!”
The phrase wasn’t an incantation ripped from the pages of a lost Dan Brown novel, but the title and publication date of a long erotic love poem printed in Venice by Aldus Manutius and often described as one of the weirdest and most beautiful books ever produced. Read more
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Monday, March 19, 2012
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
New Librarians Global Connection: best practices, models and recommendations
 |
| Image by Librarian Avenger via Flickr |
“New Librarians Global
Connection: best practices, models and recommendations“
“New
Librarians Global Connection: best practices, models and recommendations“ is a
new series of free quarterly
webinars on issues of interest to new librarians, models of library
associations and library schools working with new professionals, and groups by
and for librarians. The free webinars are presented by IFLA Continuing
Professional Development and Workplace Learning and IFLA New
Professionals Special Interest Group in partnership with ALA.
Below, the date and time
of the first webinar.
Save the date!
January 17, 2011
2:00 p.m. CST
3:00 p.m. EST
8:00 p.m. CET
7:00 a.m. EDT (next day)
World Clock
3:00 p.m. EST
8:00 p.m. CET
7:00 a.m. EDT (next day)
World Clock
Instructions for
Registration: Coming soon!
Speakers:
Dr.
Alex Byrne,
New South Wales State Librarian and Chief Executive of the State Library NSW in
Australia. IFLA President 2005-2007. Highlighting the topics: LIS school
curriculum, gained skills and degrees vs. “the reality” at work. Bridging the
gap between theory and practice. How to deal with generational differences at
work?
Janice
Lachance,
J.D., CEO of the Special Libraries Association. Featuring a model of a library
association’s work with new professionals in various regions of the globe.
JP
Porcaro,
Head of Library Acquisitions and Technological Discovery at New Jersey City
University. Co-founder of ALA Think Tank, and originator of the Make It Happen
philosophy for librarians. Featuring a group by and for librarians.
Future webinars
Come back to this page
and stay tuned for announcements of future webinars. Speakers featured in
upcoming webinars include:
Kay Raseroka, IFLA
President 2003-2005
Maureen Sullivan, ALA President Elect
Barbara Ford, Director, Mortenson Center for International Library Programs, ALA President 1997-1998
Jukka Pennanen and Mace Ojala, Cycling for Libraries
Rachel Bickley, LIS New Professionals Network
Maureen Sullivan, ALA President Elect
Barbara Ford, Director, Mortenson Center for International Library Programs, ALA President 1997-1998
Jukka Pennanen and Mace Ojala, Cycling for Libraries
Rachel Bickley, LIS New Professionals Network
The series explore
useful topics to help new professionals at various stages of their career,
including:
·
LIS school curriculum, gained skills and
degrees vs. “the reality” at work. Bridging the gap between theory and
practice. How to deal with generational differences at work?
·
Mentoring and best practices including
pros and cons of different approaches like peer-to-peer, and classical
mentor-mentee relationships.
·
How to develop leadership skills as a new
professional: programs, mentoring, learning by doing. Working abroad, leaving
your home country.
·
Continuing Professional Development for
new professionals, how to stay up to date from the very start even if
conditions at work (funding/permission to attend conferences, support with
writing articles, etc.) are not the best.
The webinars will be
recorded and made available at a later date.
Questions and requests
for information:
Loida Garcia-Febo
Coordinator of the series
loidagarciafebo~AT~gmail.com
Loida Garcia-Febo
Coordinator of the series
loidagarciafebo~AT~gmail.com
Loida Garcia-Febo
ALA Chair, Committee on Membership Meetings
ALA Councilor-at-Large http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/governance/council/index.cfm
IFLA CPDWL Standing Committee http://www.ifla.org/cpdwl/standing-committee
IFLA New Professionals SIG http://www.ifla.org/new-professionals
REFORMA Past President http://www.reforma.org/index.asp
Coordinator, New Americans Program
Queens Library, 89-11 Merrick Blvd., Jamaica, N.Y. 11432
phone: 1 + 718-990-8569; fax: 1 + 718-990-8626
-------------------------------------------------------
http://loidagarciafebo.wordpress.com/
http://www.youtube.com/Loidagarciafebo
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
recap of LIS Online Career Fair 1/12/10
LIS Online Career Fair 1/12/10 (attendance hosted by SLA-NY at Baruch’s Newman Library)
My recap:
SLA-NY Chapter generously provided group attendance (free of charge for SLA-NY members), space and food and drink for this all-day event, at Baruch. The rooms provided were comfortable and the refreshments much appreciated – thank you SLA-NY!
I attended these presentations: the Keynote address, Putting Yourself Out There (Networking), Interviewing, Continuing Professional Development, and Common Mistakes Job Hunters make. I felt this Career Fair was a disappointment overall. Most of the information was good and accurate, but I didn’t learn anything I didn’t already know. It wasn’t advertised as such, but I felt it was really for students and newbies/recent grads. Many of the people in F2F attendance were not new to the field but mid-career professionals; they already know what Twitter and LinkedIn are.
The length of the presentations was O.K.; under an hour each with ten minutes in between presentations. Lunch was a half hour and there was another half hour break later in the afternoon; I would have preferred a full hour for lunch. The sound quality was very poor during the Keynote; audio was lost completely for stretches of time and towards the end of the Keynote the audio was so choppy we could not understand what was being said. Audio was iffy all day, and there was also a great variation of volume for different speakers throughout the day. At least one presenter didn’t seem to understand that she’d have to speak right into the microphone in order to be heard and understood, even after being told that attendees couldn’t hear her. This was very frustrating. We in person at Baruch didn’t have trouble with the slides for each presentation, but people attending from elsewhere posted that they were having ongoing problems seeing the slides.
People were participating (via a chat box) from all over the
Some of the advice given was, in my opinion, not sound. For example, one attendee asked via chat box (repeatedly) if he/she should mention divorce in a job interview as a reason for not completing a degree, and others asked about telling an interviewer about considerations necessary for the applicant for religious or medical reasons. The advice given was ‘yes’ to mention the divorce, religion and medical needs and I disagree strongly with that – it is not a good idea to mention any of those things in a first interview. The religious and medical needs can be addressed once a job offer has been made; the divorce should not be brought up at all. In a different workshop, people who have been laid off were advised to ‘take some time off’ from job hunting, to heal’ – unless we are talking about a very brief period of time (days at the most), that advice can really hurt a job hunter, and may serve to prolong unemployment further, unnecessarily.
Near 4:00 (about two hours before the event finished) I saw one woman putting on her coat. I asked if she was leaving. She said yes, that the career fair ‘wasn’t what she thought it was going to be’ and that the content was “thin”. I can’t put it any better than that.
Note to some of those who attended in person at Baruch: this was, among other things, an opportunity to network F2F with other professionals in the field. Like it or not, you are making an impression on the other attendees. It is probably not a good idea to
-arrive late
-dress very casually (a suit is not required; at least’ business casual’ is appropriate)
-engage in constant complaining, venting, and expressing frustration or desperation about job hunt or job prospects (including trying to scam a free resume review); this behavior can derail a job search and diminish the willingness of potential contacts to help you. Save the venting for when you are with your friends and family.
-bring a small child who whimpers and/or cries throughout workshops
-fall asleep
Those are my thoughts on this Career Fair. I would love to hear what others’ experiences were. Thanks for reading.
Ellen Mehling (Ellen M.) is a librarian/instructor/writer living and working in NYC and (among other things) regularly teaches job hunting workshops for information professionals. She is also one of the Assistant Organizers of the NY Librarians MeetUp Group.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Meet-Up helps New Resident and Librarian "Link-In" to New York Librarian Community
On Saturday, I put a deposit down on my first NYC apartment, and two days later I attended my first NY Librarians Meet-Up Group!
It’s been a whirlwind of activity since I arrived less than five days ago from my beloved hometown of Fresno, California. While I have contended with the usual culture and sticker shocks of most new residents, I felt quite at home at this meet-up. This is no surprise since I love meeting new people, and new librarians especially.
The meet-up was in a hidden gem of SOHO, the NYPL Mulberry Street Branch, which I later learned was once the Hawley & Hoops chocolate factory. The Jersey Street entrance was a little obscured by scaffolding—and I think a few of us got lost—but the branch quickly surmounted the difficulties. Patrons are treated to an almost Alice-in-Wonderland effect as the branch drops two stories underground. Restored brick walls are showcased throughout, and it even smells nice due to the parfumerie next door.
Kate Dietrick, a staffing specialist at InfoCurrent, presented various uses and benefits of the social networking site LinkedIn, which she described as a “Professional Facebook.” Fifteen librarians and students attended. Most of us had LinkedIn accounts, but did not deploy it strategically. While Dietrick had many useful topics, a few stood out in particular:
1) Recruiters use of LinkedIn
Even more surprising to me was that if Dietrick knows of someone who might be a good fit for a job opening, but that person is not looking for a job, she will SEARCH THIS PERSON’S CONTACTS. This is under the assumption that this person is likely to have other contacts with similar skills or interests. Often as librarians or professionals, we know people through associations or committees. This makes perfect sense, but I had never considered it before.
TIP: Dietrick suggested that users include specialized skills in their “Summary” section or other parts of their account to ensure that they come up in recruiters’ search results. For instance if you know a certain database or standard, but it is not in your job descriptions, put this somewhere in your account so that you will be retrieved for those queries. (As information professionals, I'm sure we are all aware of the power of search retrieval.)
2) Use LinkedIn to research companies or people
I also enjoyed Dietrick’s tip to research future employers through LinkedIn. If you are interviewing at a company or library, LinkedIn can provide useful information on company hierarchy, size and job descriptions. You can also discover information about the person that is interviewing you for the job. This might make it easier to connect or make an impression with that person.
As a career tactic, Dietrick also suggested that we research the backgrounds of other information professionals that we respect or admire. This will give us an idea of how to recreate that path to success.
3) Using LinkedIn to promote yourself professionally
She also recommended that librarians view LinkedIn as a way to “promote your brand as a librarian.” Implicit in this suggestion was that this could be a way to market services to your users— especially since many information positions are vulnerable, misunderstood and/or underutilized.
She suggested, for instance, that if you provide a service to a new lawyer and then later connect to this lawyer on Linked-In, that lawyer will then be able to see your many other services and accomplishments. He or she might then contact you for other information needs.
4) Nuts and Bolts of Linked-In as a tool
The Meet-Up also included a discussion of the nuts and bolts of LinkedIn, such as requesting recommendations from former co-workers or employers, posting pictures, and how to connect with others. It also including general guidelines for what to post.
Unlike a paper resume, LinkedIn does not have to be limited to one or two pages, nor does it have contain library-only experience. Many of us come to librarianship after other careers, and Dietrick recommended that this other experience could be included on LinkedIn to form a full picture of your career. In fact, Dietrick suggested that many degrees and types of professional development should be listed on our LinkedIn accounts—such as chairing a project, attending a conference, or learning a new database.
On the flip side, she cautioned that LinkedIn should be treated similarly to a resume. It should be easy to read, with bullet points, and it should not include too much personal information that would be inappropriate for a resume.
While moving to a new city, and finding my first post-MLIS job during the Great Recession are not ideal, I am happy to have found an active, welcoming (and free) library group so quickly upon arrival. I look forward to joining and sharing in this local library community.
Diwata Fonte, MLIS Drexel University ‘09
Related slideshows:
Thank you Kate!!!
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Tour of the Brooklyn Public Library by Larissa Kyzer, Assistant Organizer NYLM
On June 3, 2009, following the LibCamp ‘unconference’ at Brooklyn College, a dozen intrepid NYMeetup members attended a tour of the Youth Services Division and Multilingual Center in the Brooklyn Public Library’s Central Branch. This was the first Meetup event that I have been responsible for arranging, and perhaps surprisingly, only one of the first events that I have attended as a member. Stephanie has asked me to share my experiences planning this event and a little about the tours itself, and I am happy to do so.
My first NYLibrarians Meetup Event was an extensive tour of several divisions and services within the Center for Jewish History. I was delighted at the opportunity to get a ‘behind-the-scenes’ view of such a vibrant and specialized library--one which I may not have ever found myself visiting had I not been for the tour. Afterwards, Stephanie asked the group for feedback on future events that she was interested in scheduling—in particular, she wanted to know if there was any interest in scheduling events in Brooklyn, such as a tour of the children’s library at the Brooklyn Public Library.
As a fervent Brooklynite and a library school student who has been considering the merits of young adult librarianship, I found both prospects appealing. I contacted Stephanie, who generously offered to allow me to make arrangements for a Brooklyn tour myself. The prospect was initially a bit intimidating, but I was exceptionally pleased with how straight forward the planning process was, and the opportunities that scheduling this tour afforded. For one, I was able to schedule a tour which appealed to my own personal interests—young adult librarianship and multilingual services in a public library setting. Secondly, it compelled me to reach out to active and talented librarians who, as we found during our tour, were exceptionally willing and excited to share their experiences and diverse collections with other librarians and MLIS students.
Our tour started in the youth services wing with David Mowery, the head of Youth Services. The Youth Services Division is composed of both a large children’s library and a recently-renovated Young Adult section. At 6:00 PM, the library was an active, energetic place, with children and parents perusing the stacks, making use of the computers in the youth-dedicated ‘Tech Loft,’ and studying. Highlights included viewing the rotating artwork that is on display in the section, a discussion about limited funding and its effects on youth programming, and information about how to best utilize the most popular, but least resilient items in the YA section—Manga (Japanese comics).
Following our tour of the Youth Division, we met with Frank Xu, the head librarian of BPL’s Multilingual Center. Though operating on a tight budget in a somewhat cramped corner of the adult fiction wing, the Multilingual Center manages to serve an incredibly large and diverse population of recent immigrants and Brooklyn residents for whom English is not a primary language. The center specializes in assisting individuals find practical resources (such as job-finding aids), collects current fiction and literature extensively in five languages (and somewhat less extensively in eight additional languages), and provides ‘conversation-roundtables’ in a variety of languages including English, Spanish, and any other language they can find volunteer teachers for. The staff—a small group of librarians who are exceptionally gifted linguists (one librarian, we were told, speaks over five languages; most speak at least three)—works together to ensure that the largest possible group of patrons is reached. For instance, the staff ensures that all information on the website is translated into as many languages as possible, organizes a popular reading series with international authors, and travels to public libraries and book fairs throughout the world to purchase popular contemporary materials that are being read in their home countries.
As a whole, the tour reinforced for me many of the wonderful qualities of public libraries, and especially of the Brooklyn Public Library. Upon leaving, however, a few things in particular struck me. For one, that the public library system reaches such an incredible variety of patrons—children, teens, recent immigrants, scholars, students. And as such, no vein of librarianship, even within the public library system, is quite the same. Secondly, that at this time, when we need our public libraries more than ever, they are making small miracles with the limited resources at their disposal.
Larissa Kyzer
My first NYLibrarians Meetup Event was an extensive tour of several divisions and services within the Center for Jewish History. I was delighted at the opportunity to get a ‘behind-the-scenes’ view of such a vibrant and specialized library--one which I may not have ever found myself visiting had I not been for the tour. Afterwards, Stephanie asked the group for feedback on future events that she was interested in scheduling—in particular, she wanted to know if there was any interest in scheduling events in Brooklyn, such as a tour of the children’s library at the Brooklyn Public Library.
As a fervent Brooklynite and a library school student who has been considering the merits of young adult librarianship, I found both prospects appealing. I contacted Stephanie, who generously offered to allow me to make arrangements for a Brooklyn tour myself. The prospect was initially a bit intimidating, but I was exceptionally pleased with how straight forward the planning process was, and the opportunities that scheduling this tour afforded. For one, I was able to schedule a tour which appealed to my own personal interests—young adult librarianship and multilingual services in a public library setting. Secondly, it compelled me to reach out to active and talented librarians who, as we found during our tour, were exceptionally willing and excited to share their experiences and diverse collections with other librarians and MLIS students.
Our tour started in the youth services wing with David Mowery, the head of Youth Services. The Youth Services Division is composed of both a large children’s library and a recently-renovated Young Adult section. At 6:00 PM, the library was an active, energetic place, with children and parents perusing the stacks, making use of the computers in the youth-dedicated ‘Tech Loft,’ and studying. Highlights included viewing the rotating artwork that is on display in the section, a discussion about limited funding and its effects on youth programming, and information about how to best utilize the most popular, but least resilient items in the YA section—Manga (Japanese comics).
Following our tour of the Youth Division, we met with Frank Xu, the head librarian of BPL’s Multilingual Center. Though operating on a tight budget in a somewhat cramped corner of the adult fiction wing, the Multilingual Center manages to serve an incredibly large and diverse population of recent immigrants and Brooklyn residents for whom English is not a primary language. The center specializes in assisting individuals find practical resources (such as job-finding aids), collects current fiction and literature extensively in five languages (and somewhat less extensively in eight additional languages), and provides ‘conversation-roundtables’ in a variety of languages including English, Spanish, and any other language they can find volunteer teachers for. The staff—a small group of librarians who are exceptionally gifted linguists (one librarian, we were told, speaks over five languages; most speak at least three)—works together to ensure that the largest possible group of patrons is reached. For instance, the staff ensures that all information on the website is translated into as many languages as possible, organizes a popular reading series with international authors, and travels to public libraries and book fairs throughout the world to purchase popular contemporary materials that are being read in their home countries.
As a whole, the tour reinforced for me many of the wonderful qualities of public libraries, and especially of the Brooklyn Public Library. Upon leaving, however, a few things in particular struck me. For one, that the public library system reaches such an incredible variety of patrons—children, teens, recent immigrants, scholars, students. And as such, no vein of librarianship, even within the public library system, is quite the same. Secondly, that at this time, when we need our public libraries more than ever, they are making small miracles with the limited resources at their disposal.
Larissa Kyzer
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