WHY I AM THE BEST CANDIDATE...

I am the best candidate for this position for three reasons: I am a multilingual, multicultural librarian with multiple life perspectives that has serviced an array of age-groups and communities. From 2004 to 2010, I serviced the Kingsbridge section of the Bronx--first as a high school English teacher and then as an academic librarian with Bronx Community College teaching Information Literacy. While at BCC I worked the reference desk, and cataloging books. In addition, during library school at Queens College, I worked at the Rosenthal Library as an Information Assistant, and volunteered to assist the registrar of the Museum of the Moving Image update their catalog and accession new artifacts.

My experience cataloging may not be vast, but I have always engaged in pursuits that cultivate an attention to details. For example, I am the publisher and co-editor of an online journal called Hinchas de Poesia, but also the designer of its website. Coding html is an arduous, time-consuming task, but it is certainly one that requires attention to detail. If one line of code contains a superfluous bracket or an extra div tag then your design will not display correctly, and you must ransack all your code for the error. Likewise, if the name of a book is misspelled and we just trust the copy, how will that item be found? The most important function of my job as a cataloger would be to ensure that people can locate the titles that they need. To do this, I will have to continue collocating accurate records and facilitate patron access to them.

Last but not least, I am a bilingual librarian, an ALA Spectrum Scholar, and a member of REFORMA. Even though English is my native language, I exert a native fluency of Spanish and worked as a freelance simultaneous interpreter for a non-profit that services Brooklyn and the Bronx Family Courts. I am an avid reader of Latin American Literature, and would love to augment the superb collection of the Public Library. My membership in REFORMA connects me with other librarians servicing Latino communities throughout California and allows me to create a dialogue with other librarians running successful Spanish language programs. Likewise, my relationship with the ALA and the Office for Diversity as the recipient of a Spectrum scholarship can only serve to reinforce ties that the Public Library has with the ALA.