Your name, current work place and position (for students, please tell us what school you’re attending and if you have chosen a specialization):
Camden Kimura, Palo Alto City Library (Palo Alto, CA), Adult Services Librarian
Where did you attend school for your MLIS degree?
San Jose State University
How long have you been an APALA member? Why did you first join? Are you currently involved as an officer/committee member/other volunteer?
I joined APALA in February 2017. As one of the few Asian-American librarians in my library that serves a huge population of Asian/Asian-American patrons, I wanted support both for myself and my library’s users. Happily, I’ve found both! I currently served on the Family Literacy Focus Committee and I love it. It’s so cool to see what programs APALA gets to foster in Asian-Pacific American and American Indian communities and libraries.
We’re very interested in the diversity of ethnic/cultural heritage within APALA. Please share your ethnic/cultural heritage with us and any other background information, as desired.
I am mixed race, half white and half Asian-American. The Asian-American side of me is Filipina and Japanese. I am a third-generation American on my paternal (Asian-American) side and a second generation Californian. My maternal (white) side of the family has been in the United States since before the Civil War with origins in various European countries. Although being mixed-race is not without its challenges and frustrations (I can’t count the number of times strangers have stopped to ask “what are you?” – pro-tip, don’t ever do that) I would not trade my ethnic and cultural heritage for anything. I am very proud of both sides of my family and of my ethnicities.
What aspects of librarianship are key to your personal satisfaction at work? Please share some of your professional goals and interests.
I am an adult services librarian, and one of my favorite things to do is family story time! I love seeing grandparents come in with their grandkids to enjoy stories and songs together. Service to inter-generational families is so important to me; I worked for several years at a children’s library, and seeing the number of grandparents come in with their grandkids really impressed upon me the importance of support for intergenerational families. Another aspect of librarianship I’m interested in and always trying to support is diverse collections – besides the obvious aspect of wanting to avoid the “danger of a single story” (shout out to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie), I’ve found that patrons from diverse or marginalized backgrounds want books and media that reflect their lives. They want genre fiction with diverse characters, they want books in international languages, they want movies that aren’t the big-budget blockbusters with overwhelmingly Caucasian casts, and I feel it is the library’s duty to provide these things. Finally, I love working with emerging and new adults; I grew up in Palo Alto and know what it is like to be a new adult in this town. There’s a lot recent college grads don’t know when they come home, and I love helping them find resources to get on their feet and succeed in the Bay Area (and it’s not easy!)
My personal and professional goals are to get more LGBTQ programming into my library and doing more outreach in the LGBTQ community. It’s something we definitely don’t do enough of, and a population with whom we don’t do much outreach. Given that my library is part of a metropolitan area with such a huge population of LGBTQ persons, the LGBTQ community is really a community we should be reaching out to. In addition, with myself, friends, and family in the LGBTQ community, it has become important to me to see representation in staff and internal services as well. Like any other service or programming we do, I always feel that representation starts from within. Of course, we can take as many classes and webinars as we can to familiarize ourselves with storytimes or service to seniors, and I don’t discount those at all – they’re very important and useful! – but I do think there is value in drawing on the experience of staff members for programming and outreach. I’ve lived with seniors, so I feel very comfortable doing senior outreach; I used to plan programs for young Girl Scouts and Girl Guides as a teen, so I’m always happy to help youth services librarians with their programs; I’m a member of the LGBTQ community and my personal goal is for my library to do more LGBTQ programming and provide more services to that community.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
I’m thrilled to be nominated to be a Member at Large! Although I’m relatively new to APALA, I feel I have a lot to give, and I’m excited by the possibility of being on the executive board. I promise I’ll do well.
This interview was conducted by Jaena Rae Cabrera, with editorial assistance by Deborah Caldwell.