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Spotlights
Allison Madsen, MLS (Class of 2005)
Youth Services Librarian
South Jordan Library, Salt Lake Co. (Utah) Library System
I was hired in July 2005 to work part-time (30 hours a week) for the South Jordan Library of the Salt Lake County Library System as a Youth Services Librarian. I love my job and I also adore the people I work with. As of February 1, 2006, I was promoted to full-time - I am one of two full-time children's librarians. In total, we have five librarians and one paraprofessional librarian in our branch library.
We just moved into our new building when I was hired, and I was able to put some of the first books on the new shelves. It was awesome. We are also the first branch and system in Utah to implement RFID technology. We have tagged our entire collection as well as half of the collections of other libraries in the system. We also have a completely Self-Checkout system. The majority of our patrons love it; however, it is difficult to use when they have trouble items or problems with their card. The branch also has an automatic sorter/check-in machine that is wonderful when it works, which is most of the time. When it doesn't, we don't have the staff to do all that the machine normally does.
All of our audiovisuals are centrally ordered. All other items are not, so the librarians at each branch are assigned areas to order materials for and given a budget for each area. I am in charge of ordering the Juvenile Fiction books, Juvenile Non-Fiction 500-900 books, and Book w/ Cassette kits. It is so much fun being able to decide what my branch orders. I love the areas that I am assigned. Our branch also has a teen librarian, who was hired shortly after me, and she and I work closely together since many of our patrons overlap.
I have bought a hamster that resides at the information desk. Her name is Peanut and she is a small brown Chinese striped hamster. Peanut is a big hit! I have talked with more children about this hamster than I ever talked to before.
If you are a College alumni and want to submit a profile of your current position, please contact Cassandra Jones at cbjones (at) umd.edu.