Joe Burch - A Library Technician with the San Diego County Library, Joe's experience includes assignment as a temporary Librarian with the El Cajon branch and an ongoing reference apprenticeship. She is working to complement her MLIS with a growing fluency in Spanish. As the library itself moves towards offering more services online, she hopes to improve the library's position as a transition point for patrons who need to increase their computer skills and technological literacy to be competitive in today's economy.

Hoan-Vu Nguyen Do - Hoan-Vu was drawn to librarianship after working as a library clerk for the San Diego Public Library system. He really enjoys serving his neighborhood and being around the "fusion that is created through its diversity". His career goal is to become a Youth Services Librarian and to use his background in science to introduce youth to the importance of science in their daily lives. Now more than ever he strongly believes that libraries and librarians are needed to teach and provide a place to explore, create, and produce the next generation of academics.

Lisa Ferneau-Haynes - A Professional Assistant with the Oceanside Public Library, Lisa brings her experience working with the Young Adult community to the library setting. Her background is with Barnes & Noble as their Community Relations Manager, and as such she spent her days in the local schools and after school programs learning first hand the challenges the Young Adults of today face, and will continue to face in the future. Her goals are to continue to work with this diverse demographic to navigate the overwhelming resources available to them, to help them foster a joy of reading and to one day have the courage to be the singer on Rock Band on Playstation during a teen gaming session.

Melisa Garcia - A former elementary school teacher, Melisa has long had a passion for promoting education and lifelong learning. She has a keen love of working with young people of all ages and believes that investing in children's education is critical to safeguarding our collective future. As the first-born child of parents who came to the United States from Mexico and Spain, maintaining her cultural and linguistic heritage has always been an integral part of her identity. She hopes that a career in librarianship will allow her to continue to promote learning and literacy, particularly to diverse populations who are in need of special support in order to access information and educational resources. She intends to serve as a Young Adult Services or Children's Services librarian who can use her cultural and educational backgrounds to create partnerships between the library, schools, and the wider community.

Benita Ghura - Benita works at the San Diego County Public Law Library as a reference librarian using her legal background to help self-represented litigants locate the law. Many individuals are unable to afford to hire their own attorney and the law library is sometimes their only avenue for assistance in their case. Benita aims to make the law more easily accessible to individuals and teaches classes on a regular basis providing instruction on the use of electronic legal databases.

Catherine Hong - Being a part of the daily workings of the library has given Catherine a deeper appreciation for the level of knowledge and professionalism that one must achieve to properly serve the public. In her 6 plus years with the San Diego Public library, she has worked very closely with the Youth Services Librarians. This has allowed her the opportunity to interact not only with our daily patrons, but with the children, teachers, schools and performers that rely on our branch for enhanced learning. Being the only Spanish speaking person in her branch has provided the growing Hispanic community with a familiar face. Breaking down the barriers of communication has been a goal for her, because she believes that "once you make a patron feel comfortable and at ease, they are much more open to all of the possibilities the library has to offer." Through the years, she has realizated that this is how she wants to contribute to the future generations.

Helene D. Idels - Is an Archivist/Librarian for a local history and genealogy collection affiliated with the Escondido Public Library, which serves a large multi-culturally diverse community in North Inland San Diego County. Helene is determined to collect the stories of area residents from various age groups and ethnic backgrounds (Hispanic, Asian, Native American, African American, etc) to be digitally recorded and made available for future generations. She also manages an "Immigrants to America" program that brings a series of authors from different cultural backgrounds to the library for presentations about their immigrant experiences. In addition, Helene conducts outreach by visiting local middle schools to meet with students and share information about the importance and value of the services that libraries and archives offer. She hopes that these activities will help foster a better understanding and compassion for peoples of different cultures who live and work side-by-side in Southern California.

Ariadna Jimenez-Barrios - Ariadna has worked as a library technician for three years. She likes to observe the daily interactions that occur at a library and enjoys coming up with programs that allow library users to learn or improve their computer skills. As an immigrant herself she can identify with some of the challenges that new immigrants face. Being bilingual has given her the chance to interact with many Hispanic groups. She feels that by learning about other cultures and their languages, she can better communicate and understand the needs of a diverse population.

Kathy Mei-Fang Jung - Growing up in a suburb of Dallas, Kathy Jung won multiple awards for reading the most books during the summer reading program. She had grown fond of spending time in the library. After winning a scholarship to attend the University of Texas, she went on to obtain her degree in Management Information Systems. Since starting to work for the county library two years ago, she has been involved in multiple library programs, including teaching computer classes to seniors and performing story time for Chinese children in her local branches. Kathy would like to see the wide adoption of technology in our libraries so that they can be more accessible to the general population.

Young-Soon Kwon - As an immigrant from Korea, Young-Soon discovered that the libraries of America were not just a quiet place filled with books. As she became aware of the programs the local libraries had to offer recent immigrants and their families, she knew she had found where she wanted to pursue her dreams. As a Library Assistant she has already assisted with the library's collection of multi-cultural and multilingual materials. She has a desire to work closely with her library's clientele to create displays and programs that will teach the community about their diverse backgrounds.

Lizeth Legaspi - Lizeth chose to come to the United States from Mexico to pursue college. She was introduced to the library through a Work-Study Program. This program led to a job offer that has her working at the Camarena Memorial Library. She enjoys working with the patrons there that remind her so much of herself when she first arrived in the United States, able to read English but uncomfortable speaking it. Lizeth hopes to further her education in an effort to serve her community at a higher caliber.

Cathy Lintvedt - Cathy works as a reference librarian at the San Diego County Public Law Library helping individuals find the information they need to understand the law. Many people are faced with legal problems but cannot afford to hire an attorney, and to make matters worse, the legal system can be complex and difficult to understand. As a law librarian, Cathy tries to help make the law more accessible to the public by recommending specific books, websites, or electronic databases that will explain the law to people who have not been trained in the law.

Jaqueline Luna - As a San Diego native who has lived around the world, Jacqueline has always appreciated the benefit that diversity can bring to a community. Having worked in libraries throughout her college years and beyond, she realized that this truly was her passion. She's never not had her nose in a book, and is excited to foster a love of reading in all members of her community. She hopes her love of research will be a great benefit in reference services for the patrons she will serve.

Joseph Miesner - With the belief that all people deserve equal access to knowledge and education Joseph has worked with the youth of the City of San Diego to help them envision their futures and guide them in the direction of personal success. He has helped move the Logan Heights Library and has worked as a substitute, also as a Youth Services Librarian, for both the Linda Vista and Tierrasanta branches. Most recently he has served as a temporary Branch Manager at the Scripps Ranch Library. He is currently taking a grant writing course and hopes to use the knowledge to develop a grant to enhance the Southeast Asia collections at Linda Vista.

Kristin Mulvihill - After graduating from San Jose State University with an MLIS, Kristen Mulvihill plans to become a professional librarian in the San Diego area, where she plans to capitalize on her previous master’s degree in Chinese, her technical expertise with relational databases and Web 2.0/3.0, and her 20 years of administrative and supervisory experience to work for a public library. She has applied the skills she learned to assist others in achieving their goals by helping them locate, organize, and process the information they need, and she hopes to continue to use her research skills in a library setting. While seeking this library science degree, Kristen’s educational goals will be (1) to learn how to use emerging technologies to enhance library services, particularly for people from rural areas, with diverse cultural backgrounds, or with accessibility requirements; (2) to improve her grant-writing skills; and (3) to use her fluency in Chinese to become more acquainted with the information needs of Chinese-Americans living in San Diego.

Elisabeth Newbold - Through extensive volunteer work in her life and an opportunity to live with a Spanish speaking family in Mexico, Elisabeth has developed the desire to serve the underrepresented populations in our community. Her ability to speak Spanish has helped her to conduct bilingual story time for the children of the community. While working at Poway's library, she initiated a partnership with Poway's Kumeyaay Interpretive Center. She recently conducted a longitudinal study on Tribal Libraries in San Diego County. Her paper on this topic will be published in early 2011 in Advances in Librarianship.

Leah Ohlson - Leah has worked in public libraries in the San Diego area for more than seven years. She currently works at the San Diego County Public Law Library and loves going to work every day knowing she is helping the members of her community who are unable to afford legal representation. Understanding the law library's services are such an immense help to its patrons and seeing how grateful they are for the assistance they are able to receive at the law library has made working as a paraprofessional at SDCPLL an extremely rewarding experience for Leah. Leah is dedicated to the mission of public libraries, devoted to serving San Diego's diverse community and looking forward to a rewarding career in public librarianship.

Karina Ramos - As a native Spanish speaker Karina has already used her knowledge and abilities to coordinate outreach programs with a Solana Beach Head Start group. Through bi-lingual stories and activity programs she influenced the local youth and felt rewarded when they came to library with their families to apply for their first library card. Most recently Karina began working in El Cajon as a Children’s Librarian. In this capacity she is learning to conduct Preschool storytimes, helping with Teen programs, and will begin to develop community partnerships in the area. Thus far she is enjoying all the responsibility this new position offers and the opportunity to work with a specialized Arabic-speaking community.

Monica Reyes - Monica graduated from UC Riverside with a B.A. in Ancient & Medieval History. She became interested in libraries when she began doing research for her seminar project. After graduating she enrolled at a community college to further her knowledge in librarianship and see if that was a career she wanted to follow. After a year she was offered a job at Imperial Public Library as their Literacy Coordinator and a year later offered a second job at Imperial County Free Library to coordinate their literacy program as well. Working for both the county and the city of Imperial has allowed her to travel around the Imperial Valley and gain a better understanding of her community's needs. Through work experience and education she hopes to attain strategies that will allow her to educate her community about the importance of literacy and in the process create a more literate community.

Steven Schimminger - As a self proclaimed Bookworm as a child, Steven has had a love for libraries for many years. Through his years of library experience in both in the academic and public sector, Steven has learned what a sense of purpose he feels when he helps the predominantly Hispanic community learn the value and resources the public library has to offer them. Whether it is information on how to fix their own cars or information on how to write a resume, he finds a population thriving due to the vast knowledge the library provides. He looks forward to educating future library visitors about the limitless information that the library can provide.

Elaine Sinsuan - Elaine has many years of experience working with the diverse communities throughout San Diego county. She has learned that although she may not speak the same language as many of her patrons, through patience and staff assistance all visitors to the library leave with something more than they came in with. This may include finding phone numbers, information about citizenship, or hosting story and craft time at a level that can be widely understood. She hopes to lead by example with her future as a professional librarian.

Virginia Velati- Virginia came to the United States as a teenager after spending her childhood years in Argentina. She and her family quickly realized just how important the library was to help find information to help them settle in the U.S. and learn about the new culture in which they found themselves. Virginia became aware of the need to help the youth today to realize a dream and pursue it while volunteering at a continuation high school in Vista, CA. She wants to bring the library to the communities that can benefit from all there is to offer by becoming an Outreach Librarian.

Kathleen Walker is an attorney with a passion for law librarianship. After 20 years of practicing law in New York City and San Diego, Kathleen enrolled in San Jose State University's MLIS program in Fall 2009. In July 2010, Kathleen was hired at the San Diego County Public Law Library (SDCPLL) as a substitute reference librarian. As a sub, Kathleen gets to help people throughout San Diego County. She works at the main branch in downtown San Diego and the branch libraries associated the El Cajon, South Bay (Chula Vista) and North County (Vista) County Regional Centers. Because majority of the SDCPLL patrons are not attorneys, Kathleen enjoys using her legal skills to help make the legal system less complicated for those using the law library.

Alison Weitman - Through her experience working in small town libraries, Alison has seen the direct benefit a local library can have on a community. Many low income families find their only computer access is at the library where they can have email accounts and work on school projects. With her ability to speak Spanish she is often helping the Spanish speaking community with their questions and information needs in the library. She is interested in outreach services and hopes to promote literacy in adults and children.

Julie Wong - A Library Assistant for the San Diego Public Library, Julie has a Bachelor of Arts in Public Administration and Master of Public Administration from San Diego State University. Her philosophy is that knowledge is the key to success. Her immigrant parents taught her this at an early age. They instilled in her the principle that libraries have everything to offer; because there, the world is limitless. It is this appreciation of libraries that she shares with patrons of all ages. It is with this philosophy in mind that she chooses to pursue a Master's Degree in Library and Information Science.

Laura Yee- The volunteer work that Laura has taken part in for the last decade has helped lead her down the road to becoming a librarian. She sees that although she may not be able to help everyone, even reaching one person makes a huge difference. With the belief that hard work, determination and the dedication to never give up, she looks forward to reaching out to underrepresented people of the communities and making the library theirs. Through new library materials and targeted programs she believes the library can and will attract a more diverse clientele.