UCLA LISAAA Class Notes

I am a California native and have spent most of my life in Los Angeles. Very prior to coming to UCLA for my MLIS I graduated from UC Berkeley as an Economics major. I worked, married, had two wonderful girls and spent many years working with my husband, Earl, in a family run pharmacy. When we made some changes in our pharmacy I was able to pursue a career change and my wonderful daughter Lisa pointed out how important books and reading have always been to me and that I ought to go to library school. She felt this so strongly that she even had UCLA send me an application. Well, going back to school after all those years was a definite challenge - stressful but very exciting and stimulating. Since graduating I have worked as a Public Library adult reference librarian, first at Santa Monica Public and now for the past 8 years at Los Angeles Public Library, Mid-Valley Regional branch. Mid-Valley is the busiest branch in the system and I do love it. I am fortunate to work with 3 UCLA graduate librarians, two of whom I studied with and the third, I mentored when she was in library school. I have been active in the LIS-AA (UCLA library school alumni association) since graduation. This has been a most rewarding way to keep up my contact with UCLA and I encourage all our alumni to utilize their LIS-AA membership and participate. Out of library hours I still love to read. I play tennis, walk, cook, and travel whenever possible, especially since our youngest daughter, living in Michigan. just had a baby, Grandchildren are a most rewarding hobby!

After graduating from UCLA in 2003, I spent three years working as an Adult Services Librarian for the city of Tempe, Arizona. In November of 2006, I accepted a promotion to Adult Services Supervisor for the library. I now manage a staff of 7 FTE and 3PT. Our library is located in a diverse community of 160,000, is a suburb of Phoenix, and is the home of Arizona State University, with a student population topping 55,000. Our collection is close to 500,000 circulating items, and we have over a million visitors to our building every year. In March of 2006, our community overwhelmingly approved (79%) a bond issue that will allow us to completely remodel our facility.
Just wanted to pass on the good news and keep in touch with my fellow IS alums!
Anna-Marie

After graduating from GSEIS in ’87 I moved to the San Francisco area and worked for 2.5 years in the law firm “Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich and Rosati”.  It was a very stressful and challenging place to work but I learned to think on my feet and became a very experienced online searcher.  With the help, assistance, and gentle prodding of John Richardson I also published my thesis “National Security Restraints of the Federal Government on Academic Freedom and Scientific Communication in the United States,” in the Journal of Government Information, 1990, Vol. 17, pg 17.  This article was reprinted in Bill Katz, ed. Library Lit 21: The Best of 1990 (Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1991).  Recipient, 1990 Bernard M. Fry Award for best article in Government Publications Review. 

I soon moved to the DC area (actually Northern Virginia) and decided to stay home with my two children, Alex and CiCi for about eight years.  I did attend conferences and workshops with ALA, AALL, and DCALL.  I reentered the work force in 1998 into a new field of librarianship.  I now work at in the Prince William Public Library System at the Bull Run Regional Library.  I am an Adult Services Librarian and I enjoy working with the public.  I have been quite active in VLA including committee work in the Intellectual Freedom Committee, the Region V Committee,  a Conference Planning Committee, and through the Legislative Committee extensive lobbying with local and national legislators.  Last year another legislative committee member and myself coordinated the National Library Legislative Day for Virginia.

Please contact me if you are in the DC area and would like to meet with an alumni of GSEIS!

Jessica Schwab jschwab@pwcgov.org