IF YOU DIDN’T WORK HERE,

WOULD YOU VISIT?

Outreach and programming to patrons in their 20s & 30s

Hosted by the 2009 Emerging Leaders, Group C:

Amanda Brewer
Kristen Kirk
Portia Latalladi
Sandra Sajonas
Manya Shorr
THE PANELISTS

Mel Gooch joined the Brooklyn Public Library in 2002 as an Adult Services
Librarian and now supervises adult services in six branches. She received her
MLS from Rutgers University in 2002.  At BPL Mel has been selected for the
library’s Leadership Forum, Reference Resources Advisory Committee, and
Everyone Serves Seniors Training. Mel was also part of a team that initiated
BPL’s first staff unconference.  In the neighborhoods she had served she has
introduced new programs to reach adult patrons including Book Swaps, Guitar
Hero for Adults, and a Book Club that meets at a neighborhood bar.

Once a former bank CEO, Crosby Kemper III is now the executive director
of the Kansas City Public Library system. In 2008, under his guidance,
KCPL was awarded with the National Medal for Museum and Library
Service.
Portia Latalladi is the assistant branch manager and the youth librarian at the
Chicago Public Library’s Garfield Ridge Branch. Portia has been aptly dubbed the
“Programming Queen”, by her peers and is always on the look out for new ways to
expand library services to unreached groups. She enjoys planning low tech, low
budget library events for adults, such as the recent hit "Girls' Night Out at the
Library".

Jennifer May, proud Reference Librarian with Multnomah County Library, helped
found the Zine Library Group which boasts a catalogued and circulating zine
collection, countless cool and well-attended programs, and outreach that includes
Polaroids and a Giant Library Card. She partnered Portland’s theater scene with the
library to bring drama into more people’s lives, and does her best to startle colleagues
with her clothing and hair choices.
Amanda Brewer is a reference librarian at the Beaufort Branch Library in downtown
Beaufort, South Carolina. In addition to scheduled hours staffing the reference desk
and teaching computer classes she schedules events for adults living in the coastal
community.

Manya Shorr is a Branch Manager at Omaha Public Library in Omaha,Nebraska. She

spends her days working the desk and her nights planning ways to get young
professionals back into libraries. She is Chair of Mayhem in the Midlands, an annual
crime fiction conference and half of the duo that brought Hardbound to Heartbound: a
literary speed dating event and Board Silly to the citizens of Omaha.
THE HOSTS

Kristen Kirk manages an urban youth services department in the Ocean County
Library system. Active in New Jersey’s Children's Services committees, her
focus in 2010 is making new partnerships and increasing low budget, high
impact programming. She has served children and teens at OCL, but is
particularly concerned about this issue because she is one of the patrons we’re
discussing.

Sandra Sajonas is a Young Adult Literacy Librarian working on a pilot

program to improve the literacy and job readiness of “disconnected youth” in
New York City. She received her MSLIS at Pratt Institute in New York City.
Sandra was a member of ALA’s Class of 2009 Emerging Leaders Program as
well as PLA's 2010 national conference program sub-committee. Her
professional interest include unconferences, usability, young adult literature
and services, literacy, pre-GED services, emerging technology, web 2.0 and
community outreach.
WHAT WE NEED IS A CHANGE
OF EXPECTATIONS.
PEOPLE ARE MARRYING LATER IN LIFE.
MARRIAGE RATES FOR PEOPLE OF COLOR
MOTHER’S AGE WITH FIRST CHILD
 18% OF 18-29 YEAR OLD ATTEND A RELIGIOUS SERVICE EVERY WEEK.

MEMBERSHIP IN COMMUNITY GROUPS HAS DECLINED BY MORE THAN ONE-FOURTH SINCE THE 1970S.

Twenge, Jean. Generation Me. New York: Free Press, 2006. pg. 24.
WHERE DO YOUNG ADULTS
FIND COMMUNITY?
YOU SERVE KIDS, YOU SERVE TEENAGERS
AND YOU SERVE SENIORS.

DO YOU SERVE ADULTS?

NEARLY 1 IN 5 ADULTS NEVER HAVE

CHILDREN.*

THEY ARE YOUR NEW

UNDERSERVED POPULATION.
*http://www.roanoke.com/extra/wb/58164
MOST SUCCESSFUL PROGRAMS
THE GIANT LIBRARY CARD
 Brooklyn Public Library Friends invite you to

Book & Bake Sale

Saturday, October 24th, 1-4 PM

All funds will go

towards
improving your
library!
Donations welcome -
please see
107 Norman Ave. library staff
Brooklyn, NY 11222
Tel. 718.349.8504 Organized by Friends of the

Greenpoint Library
Brooklyn Public Library’s Friends Groups are volunteer,
library advocacy groups that promote your
neighborhood libraries from books to programs to free
computer access. Our Friends Groups raise community
awareness and enthusiasm for neighborhood libraries,
keep elected officials alert and accountable to the
$1$1 paperbacks $2
library’s needs, as well as raise funds to enhance BPL’s
services and resources. To learn more please call our
Friends Coordinator at 718.230.2406.
$2 hardcover
$2 hard cover]
OTHER SUCCESSFUL PROGRAMS
LEAST SUCCESSFUL PROGRAMS
SPEED DATING
WHAT ARE THE BARRIERS TO SUCCESSFUL
PROGRAMS AND OUTREACH?
HOW DO WE USE TECHNOLOGY TO
CONNECT?
WORDS OF ADVICE.
LASTLY, JUST TRY.
WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO LOSE?