Outreach Coordinator, Gibsons & District Public Library, BC. ’21 – present.
- Plan and host all programs for adults, in person and online, with community partner organizations.
- Provide one-on-one Tech Help sessions for patrons.
- Take library services out to festivals and Christenson Village, the local seniors’ care home.
- Direct and play music for Community Readers’ Theatre productions, including Dickens’ “Christmas Carol” and Shakespeare’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream.”
Librarian, Burnaby Public Library, BC. ’07- ’21
- Personalized reference and readers advisory services for all ages, at all branches, in busy public library.
- Children’s and teen librarianship: extensive readers’ advisory for youth and their families, including book talks on audiobooks and teen/adult crossover books; explain language acquisition, pre-reading and early reader developmental stages and skills to parents and ECE students; guide families in e-resources for youth; host teen author visits; assist teens in obtaining borrowing privileges; present at Play To Learn, Welcome to Kindergarten, BC Summer Reading Club events and class visits; perform storytimes for children, in libraries and at outdoor events.
- Co-designed tremendously popular family-oriented Library Escape Room events
- For many years I organized and participated in my library’s award-winning contingent in the Hats Off Parade, including a Book Cart Drill Team costumed as characters from children’s books.
- Winner of the 2016 BCLA Summer Reading Club Story Award for best community-experience story.
- Bring a fully-functional “pop-up library” in a tent, with books,
e-books, internet-connected iPad, VR and programmable tech toys, and kids’ crafts, to festivals, farmers’ markets, parks and beaches. - Community-based outreach to better learn and serve information needs. Build relationships with underserved community groups such as Burnaby Neighbourhood House’s low-income kitchen, and a school-based ELL group. Drive outreach van and Pedal Library e-bike to run popup libraries and special events at numerous community festivities, building relationships with local business associations and local nonprofit groups.
- Led Street Teams (2014 and 2018) city-wide to interview community members about their information-seeking preferences; compiled and reported interview statistics. Served on library system-wide Event Planning and Outreach Committees.
- Teach and promote all of Burnaby Public Library’s digital resources to all ages, in Tech One-to-One sessions and Get Appy programs since 2008, as well as on the street during outreach.
- Teach digital literacy, e.g. spotting fake news.
- Create innovative programming to engage patrons of all ages with various literary, artistic, and learning interests, including: Readers’ Theatre of Leacock and Dickens, community singalongs, author visits, memoir writing workshops, poetry readings and writers’ open mic, concert series, documentary film series, Literary Friends’ Speed Chatting, and How to Start and Run a Book Club. Also host TED Talk Discussion Circles, ESL Conversation and ESL Reading Circles.
- Promote and market library programs to community organizations and local media. Co-sponsor programs with community partners including the Stephen Lewis Foundation’s Grandmothers-to-Grandmothers Campaign (GoGos), Tenant Resource and Advisory Centre, People’s Law School, Vancity Credit Union, Burnaby Heights Neighbourhood Association, Burnaby Village Museum, and the Burnaby Now newspaper.
- Maintain collections with weeding and acquisitions; analyze collection usage through Excel charts
- Collaboratively create bibliographies, including Cameron multimedia Staff Picks.
- Post bibliographies and events online using Drupal content management system.
- Schedule and train auxiliary and new hire librarians. Participate in team meetings and peer reviews.
- Attend BCLA conferences and professional development workshops; most recently, ALA Tech Futures webinar, Dementia Awareness, QMunity Awareness, Substance Abuse Awareness, KAIROS Blanket Indigenous Awareness, Responding with Respect to Disruptive Patrons, Emotional Intelligence, Outstanding Customer Service, and Thinking Lean.
Librarian (On-Call), Douglas College, BC ‘08 – ‘10
- Provided reference services for students and faculty in academic libraries on two campuses and via email.
- Taught digital resources, research techniques, citations and style guides to students in Library Skills classes and at the Reference Desk.
Librarian (Auxiliary), Richmond Public Library, BC ‘07 – ‘09
- Provided reference and readers’ advisory services for adults, teens, and children in busy public libraries.
Librarian, Cornish College of the Arts, Seattle. Oct ‘03 – Jul ‘04 (part-time) and Sep ‘04 – Jul ‘06 (full-time)
- Primary reference librarian at an academic library. Taught information literacy classes. Partnered with Seattle Public Library to instruct the Humanities & Sciences classes in the public library’s resources.
- Provided in-depth reference services to students, faculty, and staff, using print, and electronic resources.
- Created a “mobile librarian” reference pop-up outreach service at the satellite campus.
- Supervised circulation desk staff, including training, managing and scheduling student circulation desk workers.
- Actively marketed library reference services and collections specifically to each academic department.
- Analyzed collection and reference statistics by academic department to plan outreach, services, and acquisitions.
- Automated retrospective cataloguing of 40 years of serials back issues, using Caspar and Excel.
Lecturer, The iSchool, University of Washington, Seattle ‘98 – ‘01
- Taught graduate-level Library and Information Science course, LIS 536 Indexing and Abstracting: writing article abstracts and applying a controlled vocabulary of indexing terms.
- Taught social networking and encouraged students to learn marketing via personal connections. Required reading: Six Degrees of Lois Weisberg, by Malcolm Gladwell.
Library Assistant, Bennington College, Vermont. ’80-84
- Work-study student library assistant at main Crossett Library during semesters;
- Internship: Library Assistant, Selby Public Library, Sarasota County Libraries, FL.
Learn more about my recent volunteer work on the Sunshine Coast, my work in the software and e-commerce industry, my education, or about me. Contact me!