Teen Services Librarian

City of Seattle•Various - Seattle area, WA

2d•Onsite

About The Position

The Seattle Public Library is seeking innovative librarians to serve tweens, teens, and young adults (ages 13-26) as well as their caregivers and families. This role involves providing proactive services aligned with the developmental needs of youth and the needs of parents and families. The Greenwood Branch, where this position is located, is a busy and heavily used branch within the Northwest Region, known for high circulation and extensive reference and readers' advisory services. The successful candidate will demonstrate a strong commitment to high-quality learning opportunities, understand youth development, and recognize the role of family and community. Experience in engaging and collaborating with partners using culturally responsive strategies, relationship building, power sharing, and cross-functional teamwork is preferred. This position will develop, facilitate, and support community-led programs and activities focused on 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 experience providing programming to teens 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.
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, including developing and growing a racial equity practice.
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.
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 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.
Must have current working knowledge of PCs in a Windows environment and library applications and be able to use online Internet searching methods and information resources.
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.
MLS or MLIS degree from an ALA-accredited library school.
Washington State Librarian Certification.

Nice To Haves

Demonstrated experience engaging and collaborating with partners using culturally responsive strategies.
Understanding of relationship building, power sharing, and collaboration when working with and between community and institutional partners.
Experience operating in a cross-functional team.
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 unhoused young adults and older teens up to age 26.

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 diverse communities and staff.
Understand the role of community engagement in identifying community needs and goals, and develop relevant and responsive programs, services, and content.
Engage with community members and organizations to develop and maintain relationships that further community and Library goals.
Bring Library resources to patrons both inside and outside the library.
Assist patrons of all ages and interests in finding information and materials.
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 to deliver high-quality reference and reader’s advisory service in various modes (in person, phone, virtual).
Ensure that information resources and the library collection reflect the diverse needs of the community.
Use community information to create relevant programs, services, and content that respond 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, stakeholders, and administration to market programming or obtain funding.
Use evidence-based practices, data-driven decision-making, and outcomes-based evaluation to review and ensure programming meets expectations.
Understand how the librarian role functions within system-wide service initiatives and local service delivery.
Initiate conversations with staff about service delivery and lead staff, volunteers, patrons, community partners, etc.
Be knowledgeable in the effective use of library facilities, equipment, services, and programming.
Cultivate healthy working relationships with colleagues locally and regionally.
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 administrative and logistical details, such as volunteer coordination, marketing, budget tracking, and leading project teams.