Children's Services Librarian

City of Seattle•Various - Seattle area, WA

3d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Seattle Public Library is seeking innovative librarians to join their team. This role focuses on serving families and providing innovative services tailored to the developmental needs of children and the needs of parents, families, and caregivers. The Children's Services Librarian will collaborate with a branch team and a regional team to support system-wide programs, develop locally-responsive services, and build community relationships across the Mid-City East Region's four branches. The position involves community engagement, developing innovative services for a diverse community, and focusing on specific programming needs at the Douglass-Truth Branch (tween programming and outreach) and the Madrona-Sally Goldmark Branch (early learning programming, specifically story time support). The successful candidate will demonstrate a strong commitment to high-quality learning opportunities, understand youth development, and value the role of family and community. Experience with culturally responsive strategies, relationship building, power sharing, and collaboration with community and institutional partners is preferred. The role involves developing and facilitating community-led programs that promote cultural enrichment, school and career readiness, teen development, community building, and emerging literacies.

Requirements

At least one year of experience providing information services to the general public.
At least one-year of experience providing programming to children and families and demonstrate the ability to develop, plan, implement and evaluate a program using a community and youth and family voice.
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.
Proven commitment to public service and providing exceptional customer service.
Excellent interpersonal communication, problem solving, customer relations and teamwork skills; a sense of humor; and the ability to demonstrate a positive and enthusiastic commitment to public service.
Strong commitment to intellectual freedom as defined by the American Library Association’s Bill of Rights.
Ability to support the City of Seattle’s Race and Social Justice Initiative and have a strong commitment to providing equitable services to marginalized or underserved populations throughout Seattle.
Experience planning programs and designing outreach, developing and implementing a project, and evaluation; preferably using outcome-based evaluation methods. Experience serving as a member on a working committee or project team in lieu of the above experience may be considered.
Must be able to communicate clearly, diplomatically, and in a friendly and positive manner with staff and library users from diverse language, ethnic, socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds, as well as with neighborhood-based or special interest groups.
Commitment to continuous learning; acquire and maintain the necessary skills to better serve our patrons and help our organization evolve.
Commitment to develop and grow a racial equity practice; this includes but is not limited to focusing on and addressing the emerging needs of specific age groups and understanding the impacts of race and intersectionality in our larger systems, library policy, programs and services.
Resourceful and able to deal with evolving and emerging dynamics in the community as well as the workplace, cope with pressures, and learn from failures in ways that respond to patron needs and help the organization move forward.
Ability to maintain a high level of professionalism and customer service while enforcing the Library’s Community Use Agreement, working in public areas, and when confronted by aggressive or challenging patrons.
Ability to utilize their knowledge, skills, and abilities to effect positive change.
Actively seek out information from the library industry and other industries; pursue opportunities to develop networks with the intent to learn about best practices from other organizations and share The Seattle Public Library’s best practices; take initiative in helping the organization to meet its goals; and be able to communicate how the library is fulfilling its mission.
Current working knowledge of PCs in a Windows environment and library applications and be able to use online Internet searching methods and information resources.
Candidates must be flexible, able to handle multiple competing priorities and tasks, adaptable to change, and able to work effectively in a fast-paced, high-volume environment.
Must have a MLS or MLIS degree from an ALA-accredited library school and a Washington State Librarian Certification.

Nice To Haves

Experience with providing outreach, Story Time programs, experience working with racially, culturally and economically diverse communities, the ability maintain a safe and welcoming public environment utilizing principles of de-escalation to address Community Use Agreement violations and experience with interacting with people who are experiencing housing insecurity and individuals who are living with addiction or mental illness.
Demonstrated experience engaging and collaborating with partners using culturally responsive strategies and have an understanding of relationship building, power sharing, and collaboration when working with and between community and institutional partners, and experience operating in a cross-functional team is preferred.
Familiarity with social media platforms and blogging software is highly desirable.
Experience with Horizon library automation or a similar system is preferred.
An ability to incorporate and apply newer/emerging technologies in support of creative, effective programming and information services is desirable.
Experience working with tweens and families with young children

Responsibilities

Recognize the need to continually develop and practice cultural competence in customer service, reference services, reader’s advisory, program development, community engagement, team work and leadership with communities and staff that a librarian does not identify with.
Understand the role of community engagement in identifying community needs and goals, and develop relevant and responsive programs, services, and content that meet those needs.
Engage with community members and organizations to develop and maintain both formal and informal relationships to realize outcomes that further the community’s and Library’s goals.
Understand the importance of bringing Library resources to where people are, both inside the library and spaces in the community.
Assist patrons of all ages and interests in finding information they need and materials that surprise and delight.
Support system-wide service initiatives and strategic priorities.
Develop and deliver local targeted programming for area-specific populations.
Develop and maintain expertise in a wide range of information resources in order to deliver high quality reference and reader’s advisory service in a variety of modes (in person, phone, virtual).
Ensure that information resources and the library collection reflect the range of information needs in the community and effectively serve Seattle’s diverse and growing population.
Commitment to continually support community needs and interests.
Use community information to create relevant programs, services, and content that responds to specific community interests and needs.
Design and deliver relevant training and instruction for the public and library colleagues.
Create and give presentations to colleagues and peers, stakeholders, and/or the Library’s administration to market programming or obtain funding for future programming.
Use evidence-based practices, data-driven decision-making, and outcomes-based evaluation practices to review and ensure programming is meeting expectations.
Understand how the role of the librarian functions within the context of the system-wide service initiatives and local service delivery.
Initiate conversations with staff about service delivery and lead staff, volunteers, patrons, community partners, vendors, etc.
Knowledgeable in the effective use of library facilities, equipment, services, and programming.
Cultivate healthy working relationships with colleagues locally and regionally; engaging with them in support of the Library’s programs and services.
Regularly serve as a staff lead under the supervision of the Regional Manager.
Create, execute, and manage all aspects of project planning for designed services delivery including budget, resources, timeline, and outcomes based evaluation.
Coordinate all administrative and logistical details, such as coordination of volunteers when needed, marketing and advertising, budget tracking, and leading project teams.