Alea Perez is passionate about reading and librarianship, especially when it comes to teen services. On top of completing her master's studies this August, she manages her own YA lit website and recently started a new job as the head of youth services at the Westmont (IL) Public Library.
Why did you decide to pursue an LIS degree?
As a child, I was constantly surrounded by books thanks to my mom's own love affair with them, and I grew up, if not loving them immediately and intensely, at least appreciating and using them. When I made it to the seventh grade, we were required to read for my literature class Lois Lowry's The Giver, which I fell head over heels in love with, and I never looked back after that. Right around that time, my mom started working in the youth services department of my hometown's library, and if I thought I knew about libraries before, I really had my eyes opened when I began accompanying her to work. By the time I was in high school, I was a regular volunteer, helping out with programming and the occasional shifting of the stacks. You could also often find me napping in the library under my mom's desk, head resting on her storytime bear, exhausted from late nights when I had stayed up to finish that really great book of the moment. I made so many valuable and life-changing connections because of, and through, the books I was reading. Who knew words could be so powerful and transforming?
As I finished my undergraduate degree at the University of Arizona years later, I considered applying to the School of Information Resources and Library Science there but ultimately decided against it. After a few years of testing the occupational waters, so to speak, I found myself still being called to the library world. After two years as a library assistant in Arizona, I decided to pack up and try my luck in the greater Chicago area. I was lucky enough to get a job working for quite possibly the best manager I have ever had, and it was because of both her and my mom that I knew, without a doubt, this was the career I wanted to be serious about. That meant applying for the opportunity to earn my master’s degree in LIS. Throughout my time both in school and in my career, those two women have been invaluable sources of inspiration and strength.
Why did you choose GSLIS?
Is it lazy to say I chose GSLIS because it is the best, and I wanted nothing but the best for myself? To elaborate further on that, GSLIS had (and still has) a reputation for having highly qualified, extremely talented, and infectiously passionate educators, and it has been my experience in work, school, and life in general that the people you surround yourself with make all the difference in the experiences you have. Luckily, I was not been let down on that front; my professors gave me so much more than readings, lectures, and assignments. They gave me opportunities to really engage in my learning and pushed me to think critically about so many topics I wasn't even aware were out there and mattered. Add to all that the freedom to design my own course of study and the flexibility to do it all from the comfort of my home, and there was no other school that compared.
What particular LIS topics interest you most?
Issues of accessibility, diversity, and teen advocacy are all near and dear to my heart. Whether it is prohibitive fines and fees, low/no diversity staffs and/or collections, or a lack of support for teens and/or teen librarians, there are few topics that empassion me more. The community I grew up in is significantly low income—historically it has been in the top five counties in the country for rates of unemployment—making me highly aware of the effects a $2 Internet fee or a $10 late fine can have on a family's access to library resources. That is not a problem unique to my hometown. When you factor in how many areas in the country have this issue with how many libraries there are that don't have staff who look like members of the communities they're serving or books that seem familiar to their members, you can begin to see how the people of our communities may feel disenfranchised by libraries.
With regards to teens, they are often one of the most neglected and/or mistreated groups we should be serving. As a profession, we tend to have expectations that they act like adults, yet I find we tend to not treat them as such, often holding them to standards to which we hold neither our adults or our younger children. There still exist many libraries that don't even have a dedicated teen librarian to ensure they are receiving the services and resources they need to be successful. To call that a shame is to downplay how truly tragic it is for the teens in those communities.
Librarians and libraries, on the whole, provide great services to their communities, but there are still some issues we need to work on as a profession.
What do you do in your spare time?
It's been so long since I feel like I've had free time, I'm struggling a bit with this one (she says with tongue firmly planted in cheek). I try to find time to tap into my creativity, whether it is based in arts and crafts, design, or technology. This often includes activities such as using my Wacom tablet to teach myself the basics of graphic design, grabbing a canvas and glass beads to create something to hang on my walls at home, or playing around with HTML and CSS to build and constantly improve my website on YA romance literature, Less Than Three Lit. I've also been experimenting over the past few years with cooking (something my mother was pleasantly shocked to discover) and baking. Which naturally leads to my attempts to stay healthy by biking or running, neither of which I do particularly quickly but do put my all into doing. I'm hoping to pick my trumpet back up after a fourteen-year hiatus and will be attempting to relearn that. I have also had plans in the works for most of this past year to get a podcast started about YA authors; a logo has been created and the ideas, which I'm almost afraid to let loose into the world, have been brewing. And of course, there's always the books. I cannot live without a good YA book, as time permits.
What career plans or goals do you have?
It is unbelievable, truly, how lucky I have been with regards to my career. As I was still considering starting the MS program, people were being very vocal about how few jobs there were in traditional library settings, which is naturally where my heart was set on making it. Just as the Summer 2015 semester was starting, I found myself two days into my new position as the head of youth services at Westmont Public Library. At the moment, I would like to concentrate on helping the department live up to its full potential, but once I have been there longer, I would like to get back to my work focusing on teens and their needs. Beyond that, I would like to eventually earn a spot on the Printz Award selection committee and find other opportunities to be involved in the Young Adult Library Services Association and American Library Association.