Getting to Know LWB: The Interns, Part III

This year, Librarians Without Borders joined forces with San Jose State University (SJSU) in California to offer a service-based learning-model Virtual Internship program. Three students working towards Masters in Library and Information Science at San Jose State’s i-School are interning as Program and Communications Assistants with LWB’ers Melanie Sellar, Founder and Co-Executive Director; Erika Heesen, Membership Director; and Brandie Burrows, Guatemala Limitless Horizons Program Manager. We’ll be chatting, Q&A style, with each of the three students over the next few weeks, to get to know the LWB Interns.

Elise Aversa, Guatemala Limitless Horizons Program Assistant

What is your current job title? I’m Assoc. Librarian at Loyola University Chicago and am the Library Director for the Rome Campus Information Commons…that sounds fancier than it is, we’re really small!

Tell us a little about your education and interests. I did my BA in Psych & Anthro-Soc. back in the Stone Age, but I was undecided about which graduate study to undertake. It seemed like a good idea to leave my cool apartment in San Francisco, sell my VW and move to Italy before accumulating student debt and obligation. I’m still here!

What led you to MLIS school? A kindred spirit did. Like most future librarians, I would never have thought that this would be my calling and just stumbled into it. The elementary school librarian where my boys were was so similar in outlook, sense of humor, politics and powers of observation…even though there is more than a generation between us, we could be twins separated at birth! I started volunteering at the library and fell in love with it. Now I’m at a university library and don’t get to do read-alouds, but the feeling is the same. I love doing random research and the students keep the work fresh and interesting.

What do you hope to accomplish with your MLIS? What is your dream library job? I did my original library degree at the Vatican Library School, an amazing place for Humanities scholars. My MLIS from SJSU is updating me with the latest trends and service areas. My dream job is Information Resource Officer for the State Department working overseas to further library development in other countries. My long term dream is to build from this experience and work to create/better community libraries in developing countries once I can retire. I see myself in the Solomon Islands, dusting sand off the books!

What was it about LWB that drew you to the internship? When I caught sight of the name, the lights came on! It had never occurred to me that I could get a taste of my dream job while going to school. I’m really happy for the opportunity to learn and think more deeply about best practices in such a different setting. In my day to day work, I’m responsible for a high tech learning environment where everything is digital and literacy is a given at the college level. In Chajul, the challenges are very different but the spirit and the aims are THE SAME: getting our users excited about reading, learning and communicating that knowledge back to the community for the greater good.

Name three things that you will take away from your experience with LWB and the virtual internship program?

Libraries rock! What an amazing thing a community library is. Libraries are one of the few things that people have trust in around the world. That is both a privilege and an obligation.
Librarians have much more in common than they have differences. No matter who you serve and where you are, librarians are always trying to think ahead and do an even better job. I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting them [the Guatemala Limitless Horizons group] in person, but reading through their manual, looking at their goals and watching them rock the house at story time (thank you Brandie and YouTube) tells me that though we don’t speak the same language or have the same histories we have SO MUCH in common.
They are doing all the right things at Saber sin Limites. These librarians are doing a great job of building up their library in a sustainable way. The best practices are in place and they have scaffolded partnerships, goals and projects that can continue to grow realistically. No library should be an island and we all gain much from sharing experiences and expertise; LWB is a good fit for Saber sin Limites.

What are you reading right now? Do you have a favorite book? I’m reading Stephen Millett’s Managing the Future. I really don’t have a favorite, though I could generate a very long and eclectic list of books I have loved!