Professional Library Experience

Storytime at the Library. Don’t let that pigeon drive the bus!

Outreach & Programming Coordinator, Gibsons & District Public Library, BC. ’21 – ’24 (Retired, but still on-call as a sub)

  • 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 as popups at 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

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

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!