Young Lee, who resides in the Inland Empire of Greater Los Angeles, is the Reference & Electronic Resources Librarian at the University of La Verne College of Law Library. “My job responsibilities include not only reference and research support, but also instruction, maintaining/extending library’s online presence, emerging technologies, and outreach,” he says. His subject specialty is legal research, and his professional interests include instruction, gamification, and emerging technologies. He earned his B.A. from UC Berkeley in Molecular Cell Biology (major) and English Literature (minor), J.D. from California Western School of Law, and MLIS from San Jose State University–and he’s considering a Master of Education in the future.
He is active in several professional organizations. In addition to being an APALA member since early 2011, Young is also the chair of the California Library Association (CLA) Student Interest Group, the Vice-President and President Elect of Beta Phi Mu, Omega Chapter (SJSU SLIS), and recently became an ACRL TechConnect blogger. He also served on the 2012 unconference and virtual conference for California Academic & Research Libraries Association (CARL) and the unconference at ALA Annual 2011.
One thing that Young likes to do in his personal time is watching Korean dramas (aka k-dramas) and movies on Hulu and Netflix, as part of his “ ‘DIY foreign language immersion program’ campaign” to improve his Korean language fluency. In addition to watching k-dramas–which he considers “educational”–he enjoys trips to the driving range, regional/local sightseeing, photography, and hanging out with friends. When Young has time for recreational reading, he usually gravitates towards reading up on his professional interests. The last books he read were Playful Design by John Ferrara and Gamification by Design: Implementing Game Mechanics in Web and Mobile Apps by Gabe Zichermann and Christopher Cunningham.
When asked for final words, Young makes his love for librarianship clear, saying, “Librarianship is a second career for me… I’ve been so blessed and I’m so grateful for the opportunities I’ve been given that I like to devote my professional activities to advocating for libraries and helping others find success in the profession.”