Children's Services Librarian

Regular, FLSA non-exempt, part-time position (68 hours per two-week pay period). This position is part of a bargaining unit represented by AFSCME.

Pay

Salary Range: $44.92 - $54.46 per hour

Schedule

• Week 1: Wed 9:30am-6pm, Thur OFF, Fri OFF, Sat 9:30am-6pm, Sun 9:30am-6pm, Mon OFF, Tues 11:30am-8pm
• Week 2: Wed 9:30am-6pm, Thurs @ Madrona-Sally Goldmark 9:30am-1:30pm, Fri 9:30am-6pm, Sat OFF, Sun OFF, Mon 9:30am-6pm, Tues 11:30am-8pm

Please note the shift scheduled at the Madrona-Sally Goldmark Branch (1134 33rd Ave., Seattle, WA 98122). This schedule is subject to change based on the Library’s current operational need.

About the Role

The Seattle Public Library’s mission is to bring people, information and ideas together to enrich lives and build community. We view Seattle as a city where imagination and opportunity continue to thrive. Since 1891, we have grown from a single reading room in Pioneer Square to a world-class library system with 27 locations. The Library works every day to foster and support a healthy city and a healthy democracy, guided by the principles of intellectual freedom, literacy and the love of learning, racial equity, privacy and confidentiality, respect for the community, strong partnerships, and innovation.

The Seattle Public Library is actively seeking innovative librarians who see community engagement as essential to all aspects of developing, delivering, evaluating, and improving programs, services, and content. Successful candidates will be creative, self-directed professionals with a strong work ethic, a commitment to equity work, a collaborative work style, a good sense of humor, and the ability to thrive in an environment that requires supportive teamwork to maintain a safe and welcoming service environment for patrons and staff.

Children’s Services Librarians serve the whole family and provide innovative services consistent with the developmental needs of children and the needs of parents, families, and caregivers. The Children’s Services Librarian works with a branch team and a regional team to support the delivery of system-wide programs, develop locally-responsive services, and build collaborative community relationships across the Mid-City East Region's four branches. The librarian will participate in community engagement efforts and contribute to the continual development of innovative and responsive services for the region's diverse community.

The ideal candidate will have experience with providing outreach, Story Time programs, working with racially, culturally, and economically diverse communities, maintaining a safe and welcoming public environment using principles of de-escalation, and interacting with people experiencing housing insecurity or living with addiction or mental illness.

The Douglass-Truth Branch, expanded and reopened in 2006, follows historic preservation guidelines of the original library, a city landmark. The Soul Pole, a 21-foot community artwork depicting 400 years of Black history, greets visitors from the branch’s front lawn. The branch houses over 10,000 items in its African American Collection, established in 1965 through a donation by the Delta Upsilon Omega chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. The main focus for the Children’s Services Librarian at the Douglass-Truth Branch will include an emphasis on tween programming and outreach.

The Madrona-Sally Goldmark Branch is in a former fire station building and features a large window with a bench for reading or storytelling. A sculpture called "The Peaceable Kingdom" is on the lawn. The branch has a unique collection of Madrona neighborhood mementos, including photos and scrapbooks. The main focus for the Children’s Services Librarian at the Madrona-Sally Goldmark branch will be early learning programming, specifically story time support.

Responsibilities

• Cultural Competency: Continually develop and practice cultural competence in customer service, reference services, reader’s advisory, program development, community engagement, teamwork, and leadership with communities and staff that a librarian does not identify with.
• Community Engagement and Partnerships: Identify community needs and goals, and develop relevant and responsive programs, services, and content. Engage with community members and organizations to develop and maintain formal and informal relationships that further the community’s and Library’s goals. Bring Library resources to where people are, both inside the library and in community spaces.
• Reference Services and Reader’s Advisory: Assist patrons of all ages in finding information and materials. Support system-wide service initiatives and strategic priorities. Develop and deliver local targeted programming for area-specific populations. Maintain expertise in a wide range of information resources to deliver high-quality reference and reader’s advisory service in various modes (in person, phone, virtual). Ensure information resources and the library collection reflect the range of community needs and serve Seattle’s diverse population.
• Program and Service Design, Development, Delivery, and Evaluation: Use community information to create relevant programs, services, and content. Design and deliver training and instruction for the public and library colleagues. Create presentations to market programming or obtain funding. Use evidence-based practices, data-driven decision-making, and outcomes-based evaluation to review programming.
• Programmatic Leadership: Understand the role of the librarian within system-wide service initiatives and local service delivery. Initiate conversations with staff about service delivery and lead staff, volunteers, patrons, community partners, and vendors.
• Operational Leadership: Use library facilities, equipment, services, and programming effectively. Cultivate healthy working relationships with colleagues locally and regionally. Work effectively under the supervision of the Regional Manager, regularly serving as a staff lead.
• Project Management: Create, execute, and manage all aspects of project planning for service delivery, including budget, resources, timeline, and outcomes-based evaluation. Coordinate administrative and logistical details such as volunteer coordination, marketing, budget tracking, and leading project teams.

Requirements

• Information Services: At least one year of experience providing information services to the general public.
• Programming: At least one year of experience providing programming to children and families, including the ability to develop, plan, implement, and evaluate programs using community and youth/family voice.
• Exemplary Customer Service: Minimum one year of experience providing customer service in person, via online chat, or over the phone; and/or instructional or outreach services to the general public. Demonstrated commitment to public service and exceptional customer service.
• Intellectual Freedom: Strong commitment to intellectual freedom as defined by the American Library Association’s Bill of Rights.
• Race and Social Justice Initiative: Ability to support the City of Seattle’s Race and Social Justice Initiative and a strong commitment to providing equitable services to marginalized or underserved populations.
• Project Management and Teamwork Skills: Experience planning programs, designing outreach, developing and implementing projects, and evaluation, preferably using outcome-based methods. Experience serving on a working committee or project team may be considered.
• Communication and Interpersonal Skills: Ability to communicate clearly, diplomatically, and positively with staff and library users from diverse backgrounds, as well as with neighborhood-based or special interest groups.
• Commitment to Continuous Learning: Acquire and maintain skills to better serve patrons and help the organization evolve. Commitment to developing and growing a racial equity practice, including addressing the needs of specific age groups and understanding the impacts of race and intersectionality.
• Resiliency: Ability to deal with evolving community and workplace dynamics, cope with pressures, and learn from failures to respond to patron needs and help the organization move forward. Ability to maintain professionalism and customer service while enforcing the Library’s Community Use Agreement.

The successful candidate must demonstrate a strong commitment to providing high-quality learning opportunities and understand tween, teen, and young adult learning and development, as well as the role of family and community. Preferred experience includes engaging and collaborating with partners using culturally responsive strategies, understanding relationship building and power sharing, and operating in a cross-functional team.