Youth Services Librarian

LOCATION: Vergennes, Vermont

TITLE: Youth Services Librarian REPORTS TO: Director, [email protected]

HOURS: 20-25 Hours/week

STARTING PAY: $19-20/hour, depending on experience

BENEFITS: Eligible for a matching Simple IRA retirement plan of up to 3%

Summary: The Bixby Memorial Free Library in Vergennes, VT, seeks an energetic, innovative, and organized Youth Services Librarian to join our team and serve our vibrant five-town community. The successful candidate will have a strong commitment to providing quality public services and will be responsible for managing collections, programs, partnerships, and spaces for our area youth and their families. The candidate will be a highly organized and collaborative team player who is comfortable and effective in working with preschoolers through teens.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Plans, develops, maintains, and evaluates all aspects of the Library’s juvenile and young adult collections, programming, and spaces within budget, including audiovisual and electronic resources, using standard review sources and considering patron requests and usage.
• Plans, organizes, facilitates, and evaluates educational and cultural programs and series for children and young adults.
• Partners with local schools, childcare providers, community youth organizations, and others to assess needs and coordinate offerings
• Develops approaches to expanding the use and enjoyment of library resources and participation in library programming, particularly among underserved groups.
• Recruits, trains, manages, and supports adult, pre-teen, and teen volunteers.
• Identifies and provides relevant support, tracking, and reporting for grants and other income sources.
• Provides regular circulation desk coverage and support
• Creates promotional materials for children’s and young adult programming. Maintains the children and young adult sections of the library website and posts on social media regarding children and young adult programming.
• Prepares a monthly management report on youth services activities, engagement, and trends
• Performs outreach to schools and other local agencies for programming, especially summer reading programs.
• Performs similar or related work as required, directed, or as the situation dictates.

Preferred Skills:

• Experience with library collection databases, such as Verso and Clover
• Experience with WordPress and Canva
• Passion and ability to interact meaningfully with children of all ages and their caregivers
• Current knowledge of trends in children and youth literature and programming
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, including public speaking
• Highly effective partnering and collaboration skills and ability to work in a team environment
• Self-directed with excellent time management, judgment, and creative problem-solving skills
• Skillful in learning and leveraging a range of technology, tools, and platforms for communications and productivity
• Strong sense of humor, positivity, resourcefulness, and resiliency

Education and Experience:

• A Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) degree and/or Vermont Certificate of Public Librarianship and three or more years of working with children and youth in a library or school setting is strongly preferred, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.

Physical Requirements: Work is performed under typical library and office conditions on multiple floors. Duties require intermittent light to moderate physical effort in carrying, lifting, or moving lightweight materials or equipment.

Accessibility note: Please be advised that our historic building is currently not fully ADA-compliant. We are working hard on an accessibility project to make sure that all members of the community can access our second floor, but currently, the only ADA accessibility is to the basement and first levels.

Compensation: $19 – $20 per hour, depending on qualifications. This position is eligible for a matching Simple IRA retirement plan of up to 3%.

Please send a cover letter and resume to Catharine Hays, Library Director, at [email protected].

About the Bixby Memorial Free Library Bixby Memorial Free Library proudly serves and is supported by the people of Addison, Ferrisburgh, Panton, Vergennes, and Waltham, Vermont, offering both traditional library lending and an ever-expanding range of services, programming, digital resources and technology for every age and every stage of life. The stately 113-year-old library serves as the public cultural and community center offering welcoming spaces to read, relax, work, meet, socialize, host events and take in the view of the stained-glass dome from the marble lobby or Otter Creek Falls and the Adirondack from the west porch rocking chairs. Tuesday – Thursday: 10am to 7pm; Friday – Saturday: 10am to 3pm. Website: http://www.bixbylibrary.org/