by Kasina Vaewsorn | Staff Writer | [email protected]

The display currently on the second floor of the Learning Resource Center (LRC) has students’ notes posted all over it. The notes say things like, “A quiet place to study” and “Helpful and nice staff.” Others are long paragraphs about what the library provides for them and their peers. Among these resources are access to technology, research help, library staff and more. The opposite side of the display board shows pictures of Library and Information Technology (LIBT) students. Librarian and Professor Pamela Posz helped organize this showcase.

“In the display we wanted to highlight the program and then all the awesome work that libraries do,” says Posz. “I had [my students] submit photos holding up a sign that says why they wanted to work in libraries, and it just shows the range of things that libraries are doing and the services they’re providing.”

Posz is also the coordinator of the LIBT Program, which is a mixture of online and in-person classes. Students in this program can either earn an associate degree or a certificate of achievement or both. Posz says many students work as library technicians right after completing the program, while others go on to universities to pursue a degree in library science.

Posz says that what draws many people to work in libraries is the desire to help people. This sentiment is reflected in the display photos of students in the LIBT program. One student’s sign says, “I want to work in a Library because I want to meet the needs of children. Library = literacy.” Another student’s sign reads, “Libraries are a safe space for learning.”

“It’s all about connecting people with what they need, whether it be books or videos or, you know, Legos,” says Posz. “It’s a really great profession to be in.”

In addition to the desire to help others, Posz says many students choose to work in libraries because of their love of books and learning.

Current City College library technician and former LIBT program student Baleria Flores always loved libraries growing up. Coming from a large family, she says having a library just one block away from her childhood home was important for her.

“I couldn’t walk anywhere. I couldn’t go any further out, so that was just my fun place to go,” says Flores. “The silence was actually pretty good because at home it was always noisy, there was always something happening. It was a way to escape from everybody.”

She recalls a time when the school librarian revoked her check out privileges after losing a book.

“I remember one time, I checked out ‘Brown Bear, Brown Bear,’ and I took it to class and I ended up losing it, and then they told me I couldn’t check books out anymore. But even though my privilege was removed, I still went in there, I still read the books in there,” says Flores.

Fellow City College library technician Elizabeth Shutak also graduated under the LIBT program. Her love of libraries started at a young age.

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There, Shutak recalls, she would read fiction for hours, escaping into different worlds.

“That was one of my favorite comforts, just being able to go [to the library] and spend an afternoon just reading stuff and getting distractions from the whole ‘I don’t know anyone’ and all the stress of moving and everything,” she says. “It was kind of like a safe place for me to be able to go, which is really important, especially when you’re a kid.”

Both Flores and Shutak say that their favorite part about being a library technician is the relationships they get to foster with students.

“One of my favorite things about working here is seeing the students come through here, and sometimes I’ll see somebody start off their very first semester and watching them go from their very first class to upper level things and then transferring,” says Shutak. “It’s just super rewarding for me. And then sometimes they’ll be like ‘Oh, hey, I got into here’ or ‘I’m transferring and I wanted to say goodbye.’ It’s really nice seeing them get through everything and succeeding.”

Flores says that being a former student at City College helps her as a library technician.

“I was a student here previously, and I understand the struggles. I know what they’re going through,”  says Flores. “There’s times like finals, where they’re stressed out. I understand their view. That’s why I try to be as approachable as possible, asking them, ‘What do you need?’ or ‘Do you need this?’ and so forth.”

When Flores was a City College student, she relied on the LRC’s third floor for its quiet study spaces and the LRC’s online research database. Shutak says that one of the most valuable resources the LRC has are the textbooks on reserve.

“I remember my first semester here and seeing that the math textbook I needed was $130,” says Shutak. “I couldn’t do that, you know, so thankfully our professor told us that the library had copies on reserve, so a bunch of us just went [there] and checked out some books and got our homework done. And that was super valuable for me because it meant that I wasn’t gonna immediately fall behind.”

The textbook reserve is just one of many resources available to students at the LRC. For students who are interested in pursuing a career in libraries, City College’s LIBT program can provide them with an excellent skill set and a high chance of being hired by the local library system, says Posz. Students in the program also find community within the classes.

“For the students, when they enter the classes, they do find their—I would phrase it sort of as a ‘geeky family,’” Posz says with a laugh. “The people who tend to be attracted to libraries tend to be really curious and interested and really love a lot of things, so when they find other students who are like them, it really is—actually one of my favorite things is watching them form relationships with each other, like, ‘Oh, my God, these are my people!’”

To find out more about the LIBT program, contact Posz at [email protected] or stop by the second floor of the LRC for informational pamphlets.