I’m a Young Readers Librarian at the Palos Verdes Library District, working mostly at the main Peninsula Center location but also at the Miraleste branch where I conduct a weekly story time for toddlers with my loyal puppet friend, Lenny Lion. In addition, I order children’s comics as well as books dealing with topics ranging from mythology and religion to medicine, technology, pets and cooking to the histories of Asia, Africa, and North America. I answer research and readers’ advisory questions at the reference desk and plan library programs for kids and teens (e.g., a “Knight for a Day” jousting session for tweens and a “CSI for Teens” event that lets middle and high school students learn crime scene investigation techniques from a police officer).

Librarianship is a second career for me, following a 20-year stint as a professional communicator for a series of technology, aerospace, and financial services companies. That line of work taught me the value of effective marketing and branding of an organization’s products and services, lessons that have stood me in good stead in the public library. Both professions allowed me to indulge a passion for helping people find what’s important to them while navigating a vast sea of information. It just so happens I’d much rather do that with a 10-year-old who wants to learn about turtles than with a defense contractor interested in the latest radar guidance system! As a Eureka! Institute fellow, I look forward to enhancing my effectiveness as a library leader who wants to help satisfy my community’s hunger for reading and learning.