Kelly Keefer

Reading Circle (Clipart)

Being a librarian is my second career. Prior to getting my MLIS in 2006, I held business positions such as marketing manager for publishing companies, and product/project manager for an e-learning company. I earned my MLIS while working full-time, then help on-call and part-time librarian positions at local Bay Area libraries until I found a full-time position with the City of San Leandro.

ABOUT YOUR JOB

Currently, I am the Senior Librarian, Youth Services, for the San Leandro Public Library, which serves a community of about 80,000. My job runs the gamut from storytime to children’s desk shifts to school outreach and planning/running the summer reading program.

What would most surprise people about your current job? 

When I tell people I work in a library, they almost always respond with something to the effect of “I wish I had a quiet job like that.” I don’t think they understand just how noisy a library is on storytime days and on weekday afternoons!

What are your top three responsibilities? 

Managing programs, services and the library’s collection for children ages 0-12 and their families. I also supervise the teen librarian who handles programs and the collections for ages 12-18.

Where do you see yourself making the biggest difference? 

I see storytimes, school tours, or anytime I work directly with children, as a great opportunity to make the library seem like a friendly place that welcomes kids and their families. Creating a positive experience goes far in getting that child or family interested in a second visit. I also love having the books and readers advisory tools that will allow kids or parents to find that great next book that will keep them interested in reading.

ADVICE

What’s the best piece of professional advice you’ve been given? 

If you are planning to be a children’s librarian, make sure you like working with kids AND their parents, and make sure you can work evening and weekends! Many people are surprised by the hours they have to work at a public library, but evenings and weekends are often when services are most needed.

What’s something you wish you had known when you started out in this profession?

I wish I had more training in dealing with difficult patrons, including the mentally ill, or just plain angry. It can take some time before you find the right approach for working with the various types of patrons who use the library. I recommend the book “Diffusing the Angry Patron: A How To Do It Manual for Librarians, 2nd ed” for all libraries.

JUST FOR FUN

What fictional character would you most like to be for a day? 

Hermione Granger

Read...and share!

Original image at http://www.julieanovak.com

Here's a challenge leading up to the new year: make this blog bigger and better!

In the (almost) three months this blog has been live, a dozen school and public librarians have shared their stories. People have clicked through to its pages more than 3,000 times! Our Facebook page has more than 200 "likes."

There are many more stories to come and I want even more people to read them. Why? Because our stories matter. It's that simple.

My challenge to you - this blog's readers - is this:

1) Tell your peers, colleagues, students, instructors, principals, and trustees about the For the Future: What Today's Youth Services Want the Next Generation to Know. Share the blog (and/or its Facebook page) via Twitter, professional listservs, e-mails, blogs, snail mail, and more. You can use this handy shortened link for the blog page, http://bit.ly/TOOdiV, and this one for the Facebook page, http://on.fb.me/UKa523 

As I did at 200 "likes," I'll continue making a donation to a reading, literacy, or library-related cause at each 100th like. I'll also make a similar donation at the 5,000 and 10,000 page views for this blog.

2) Share your stories! Do you have advice, cool ideas, or something else about your life as a children's, teen, or school librarian that you want to share? Let me know. E-mail me and I'll work with you to share your stories. Perhaps you know other librarians whose work inspires you: share their name with me so their stories can be read too.

Thanks for reading and for being part of this new adventure.

-Carol

Sam Sednek

I graduated from the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana in August of 2011 and have since been working as the Teen Services Librarian at the Haverhill Public Library in Massachusetts. Prior to grad school, I served as a Peace Corps volunteer in the southern African country of Lesotho as an English teacher and community library developer. I'm a big fan of getting teens to create content not just consume it and I hope to continue working in libraries striving to add digital media centers to their list of services. 

ABOUT YOUR JOB

My current job is a little of everything. My library is short on people and long on jobs. I do reference, help with the website, do some children's programming, all teen programming and teen collection development.

Teen Services is really a do anything, do everything job. I was hired to “handle the teens” but was given a lot of leeway on how that gets done. So, I've done rocket launches, added computers to the Teen Area, am working with teens on painting benches, can't wait until the next outdoor capture the flag game, love working with the robotics club, and hope that the upcoming Beautiful Creatures movie stirs up as much book excitement as the Twilight and Hunger Games franchises did. 

Who is your greatest ally and why?

The head of children's services, my boss, was the last Teen Services librarian in Haverhill. The assistant director of the library was the Teen Services librarian before her. I've got a lot of administrative support and it helps me get far. 

How do you stay current? 

People often forget how useful the internet is...I mean, it is full of adorable cats memes and endless flash games but if you work with teens half of that can be turned into a program. I read blogs that interest me (io9, 4YA, Lifehacker, Jezebel) and then I turn as much of that into a program or activity for my kids. It has worked pretty well so far! 

How do you measure success? 

On the last half day of school, I was working on a new booklist at my desk when five kids made their way over. “Sam! What are we going to do today?!” was the call...and I knew I had some level of success. I got kids running from school to the library to do stuff. What's better than that?

ADVICE

What's worth fighting for? Why? 

Money. Budget cuts are everywhere but if you can build a program that brings folks into the library and has them leave with a) library materials and b) a smile on their face, you've got it made. Apply for grants even if they're scary and time consuming because once you start getting outside funding your possibilities become endless. 

How do you respond when someone asks you, “Isn't everything online?” 

Well, it pretty much is and we're heading further in that dirction, so when I get that line the first thing out of my mouth is, “Absolutely! Have you seen our awesome new databases?” Folks think everything is on Google but if you have one or two good databases up your sleeve you can show them the one-stop shop isn't Google but your library's webpage.

JUST FOR FUN

What fictional character would you most like to be for a day? 

Honestly? I read a lot of dystopian and post-apocalyptic fiction. Most fictional characters have really awful lives and I'd pretty much pass on all of 'em. But, I do sort of like the crazy medieval world in R.L. LaFevers' Grave Mercy so maybe I'd be Ismae...after she learns how to kill people. 

How do you hope to spend your retirement? 

Wait. What? Librarians actually retire? 

Paper or digital? 

All of the above. The more formats we have the more people we can reach. There's no losing scenario there.

Email Sam at sednek1@gmail.com


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Dipesh Navsaria

My undergraduate majors were biology and English Literature, followed by a master’s in public health in health services. I then went to physician assistant school and practiced as a PA for a few years in outpatient pediatrics before going to medical school. It was in the midst of medical school I went to library school with the intention of learning more about children’s literature.

I am now an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin, spending about half my time in primary-care pediatrics at a community health center and the other half of my time doing a blend of advocacy training, early literacy promotion, and medical education/advising. I am the medical director of Reach Out and Read Wisconsin as well. It keeps life interesting!


ABOUT YOUR JOB

Why would a physician want an MLS? (Or, why would a librarian want an MD?)

I went to library school expressly to learn about children’s literature. I did - but I also learned a lot more. I learned that information-seeking behaviors and techniques (particularly around medicine) were not unique to medical education — reference interview is not all that different from medical interviewing. In a sense (if you ignore the performing of “procedures”), medicine could be considered a highly specialized form of librarianship.

Most people are surprised to learn that I was not a librarian before I went to medical school, but that I specifically intended to go to library school during my medical training.

Who is your greatest ally and why?

Public librarians. They give information away as a public good without question. The focus is always on “how can we serve our patrons best” without being unduly wrapped up in questions of profit and financing. Health care could learn a lot from public libraries.

How do literacy and librarianship fit in your current job?

A good part of my time is spent on programs which train health care providers to encourage families to share books together with their young children as a critical aspect of well-child care. It is critical to expose children to the foundational aspects of literacy early in order to build brain development so that they are “primed” for learning in preschool and beyond. As I am fond of saying, Books Build Better Brains!

ADVICE

What’s worth fighting for? Why?

Fight for what you know to be true. Keep repeating it. It’s taken a few years, but the notion of giving books to children as a key component of health care is finally gaining traction.

How do you help parents and other adults understand the value of sharing books with children?

In clinical practice, I give the book directly to the child and watch what they do with it. I can perform a lot of my developmental assessment just by observing. (I’ve said that I’d rather walk into a well-child visit with a young child without my stethoscope than without a book – I learn a lot more from the book!). 

I then comment on what I see to the parents and use that as a springboard to discuss home reading, bedtime, school and the like. I then print out a “prescription to read” on their after-visit summaries to highlight the point.

What can youth services librarians learn from medicine / medical practice?

What you do is critically important. I think too many librarians think that they “only do” something “nice” but not “important”. You are so much of the education and health care infrastructure that I rely on to help ensure my patients develop well. I trust and rely on your core values of public service, privacy, and being non-judgemental.

You’re a bulwark of what makes our society great, and you directly work with and influence the lives of children. Start acting like it, and start asking for what you need to fulfill that mission.

JUST FOR FUN

You can have any superpower; what would it be?

Almost-infinite persuasion. With careful advocacy, we collectively can accomplish virtually anything. (And I say “almost” because there should always be checks on anything.)


You can find Dipesh at
http://facebook.com/DrLibrarian 

http://twitter.com/navsaria 
http://www.navsaria.com
http://reading.pediatrics.wisc.edu
http://www.chawisconsin.org/ror.htm
http://www.reachoutandread.org

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Betsy Bird

I've been a children's librarian with New York Public Library (NYPL) for the last nine years or so. I am currently NYPL's Youth Materials Specialist.

My blog A Fuse #8 Production is hosted by School Library Journal (SLJ). I review for Kirkus and sometimes the New York Times and I've written the ALA Editions title Children's Literature Gems: Choosing and Using Them in Your Library Career. My picture book Giant Dance Party is out with HarperCollins this April 23rd and I've a book with Candlewick in the Fall of 2013 on the true stories behind your favorite children's books.

ABOUT YOUR JOB

What would surprise most people about your current job?

Well, in my current position, I'm one of two people who purchase all the materials for kids and teens in the NYPL system. One thing that tends to surprise folks is that a system as large as NYPL has centralized ordering, but that just makes sense when you're buying for 86 branches. Other people are unaware that Brooklyn has its own library system and Queens another. I only buy for Manhattan, Staten Island, and the Bronx, but there's more than enough to keep me busy.

What are your top three responsibilities?

I suppose those would be the actual purchasing of materials and managing requests from my librarians in the branches. I also make a lot of site visits to the aforementioned 86 branches to help with the collections, get a sense of what neighborhoods are reading, and generally support the people who work with New York's youth. Finally, I help to make the lists that make NYPL great - everything from our annual "100 Titles for Reading and Sharing" (a list we've made since 1911) to the summer reading list.

Betsy Bird (Photograph by Sonya Sones)

How do you stay current?

To keep up with pop culture I subscribe to Cynopsis Kids which is a daily media newsletter which encapsulates all the wheelings and dealings in the industry (as well as a sense of what the top watched television shows are and what future shows and movies for kids will be). 

To keep up with instruction my library system does a slambang job at providing training for all its employees. Going to library conferences also helps a great deal.

Keeping up with technology is, to a certain extent, a case of letting the folks with the new projects approach us as a library system.

And keeping up with literature is a breeze when you read the best children's literary blogs out there (bookshelves of doom, 100 Scope Notes, Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast, etc.). I also read my SLJ and Kirkus cover to cover each month, subscribe to listservs like child_lit and ccbc-net, and when I have time I attend publisher previews provided here in NYC for the local librarians, which gives me a sense of the upcoming seasons. Plus I read and review quite a lot.

ADVICE

What's the best piece of professional advice you've been given?

Pick your battles. Granted, I got that advice from an episode of That 70s Show, but I figure it still stands. Generally speaking, you have to get the lay of the land before you start kvetching about things that are wrong here and there. Complain about a dinky little squabble and you may find yourself out in the cold when the real battle comes and is worth fighting.

What's worth fighting for? Why?

It comes down to two things for me: the staff and the young patrons. You fight for the staff, the ones who go above and beyond the call of duty as well as the ones who do their best and fill the necessary seats. You also have to fight for the kids, supporting them and making it clear that our child and teen patrons deserve only the rarest kind of best in their literature and the programs we provide.

What's something you wish you had known when you started out in this profession?

Find a way to remember names and faces. I had no idea it would become such a huge part of my job. Remember not only the regular patrons who come through the door, but also the other librarians, information assistants, managers, and clerks in your system. A good memory is worth its weight in gold so if you're not good at this particular skill, find ways to improve it.

How do you respond when someone asks you, "Isn't everything online?"

Oh yeah. That happened to me once. A hedge fund manager at a literary gala.

First I mentioned that even if everything was online there are huge swaths of the public that can't go there whenever they want to since they simply can't afford it. 

Then when they start to mention the death of the printed book (and they will) you point out the statistics that show that in point of fact sales of ebooks have not affected the sales of print materials any more than the arrival of television destroyed movie theaters. 

We've patrons coming into my libraries asking for library cards for the first time because they realized we had ebooks. So it's a new segment of the reading public that's benefitting the most here.

And finally, have you ever tried to read a gorgeous picture book on a tablet? Dude, until they make a juice proof bit of handheld machinery that can stand up to a sippy cup full of Welch's grape juice, children's books are in no danger of disappearing print-wise.

JUST FOR FUN

How do you defy the librarian stereotypes?

Be funny. Weirdly enough this is the number one way I end up surprising people. Apparently we are humorless old harridans without so much as a droplet of amusement in our bones. Crack a joke and it does wonders for the occupation's image, I tell ya.

Email Betsy at Fusenumber8@gmail.com


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Like and Kids Win!

As I write this post, our Facebook page is at 99 "likes." Who will be out 100th like?! Better yet, who will be our 200th like? Spread the word, get your friends to like this page, and when we reach 200 likes, I'll make a donation to Reading is Fundamental (RIF)! Ready, set, go...

Annette Curtis Klause

Posting this interview is a special treat for me - and I hope reading it is a treat for you. Annette Curtis Klause is one of an intrepid cadre of youth services librarians who also writes for young people (other members include Beverly Cleary, Patrick Jones, and Ellen Wittlinger). Cheers!

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I have worked for the Montgomery County Public Libraries in Maryland for thirty years, many of them as head of a children’s department. During that time I have also had four novels for young readers published, and various short stories.

ABOUT YOUR JOB

Currently I work in Collection Management. I select the children’s fiction, picture books, DVDs, and Spanish books for 21 libraries, as well as graphic novels for the children’s, young adult, and adult collections.

What would most surprise people about your current job?

I get to keep hermit crabs in my office.

How do you manage your time?


Lots and lots of Outlook pop-up reminders. LOL. Also, a written yearly plan, divided by month.

Who is your greatest ally and why?


My co-worker who buys the other children’s materials, because she makes me laugh when things get tough, and she keeps candy in her office.

What are the most challenging aspects of your job?

Trying to please everyone on a limited budget.

ADVICE

What's worth fighting for?


Intellectual Freedom. Kids deserve to find the information they need without others getting in their way. Young people have the right to decide what they are ready for and find their own level. Ignorance stunts society.

What's something you wish you had known when you started out in this profession?


There’s a lot more to working in a public library than what you learn in Library School. Coping with difficult people (both the public and staff) should be a core curriculum class.

How do you respond when someone asks you, “You need a degree for that?”


I have a certain little gesture. Well, okay, I’m politer than that, but I do have a look that can stun.


How do you respond when someone asks you, “Isn’t everything online?”

I tell them no it isn’t and explain what the library can help them find in our databases and from the services we subscribe to.

JUST FOR FUN


What fictional character would you most like to be for a day?


Lucy when she was one of the queens of Narnia. I always wanted to go there and meet Reepicheep among others.

Email Annette at annette.klause@montgomerycountymd.gov