Cybele Garcia Kohel
Library Coordinator, Jackson STEAM Dual Language Magnet, Pasadena Unified School District
American Library Association 2023 Emerging Leader
What is your primary library service role?
I am an elementary school librarian (K-5), my title is Library Coordinator.
How does your work align with service to Latinos and Spanish-speaking communities?
Our school community is very diverse, and a majority of our school families are Latin@. Jackson is a dual language (Spanish) school, so I do storytime and curriculum in Spanish as well as English.
What is your favorite aspect about your work?
I really love teaching information literacy and digital literacy to my students. Students have Chromebooks assigned to them by the school district, so I teach them how to access our online catalog, how to perform searches, how to tell the difference between fiction and nonfiction, etc. I also love helping students find what they are looking for in our library! We do scavenger hunts to learn the Dewey system and students help in the library as well. It is always very satisfying to see a child walk away excited about their library book. I also really love working with parents and community members to plan storytimes and other events. In short, there are quite a lot of things I love about library work!
What advice do you have for other librarians and present/future MLIS students?
Stop and ask your patrons how they are. I do this with my students when they come to my desk to check out books. I take a moment and look them in the eye. I am present with them. This builds a connection, and hopefully in that moment, they know they are seen.
What programs have you been in charge of or involved with?
I create my own curriculum to fit whatever is happening in the school year. I am the one that teaches students how to use the online encyclopedias so they can write reports for classroom learning. In partnership with teachers, we are creating a curriculum around writing book reviews that will be posted inside our online catalog (in English and Spanish), so students can read what their peers are saying about books. Next semester I am piloting a new tech program, which will allow students to search our catalog via a tablet that they can hold in their hands while they are searching for a book. Our school also has a yearly Read-a-Thon in partnership with Altadena Library.
What personal interests or hobbies do you have that you would like to share?
I am a writer, and an advocate for women and non-binary writers as part of the leadership team for Women Who Submit literature. We work for gender parity in publishing. I am a trained consensus-based facilitator and strategic planner and still jump at the chance to use these skills with a wide range of groups.
I am a mom, a reader, an animal lover, I garden with California native plants, and I love hiking and riding my bike.
What are you looking forward to most as 2023 ALA Emerging Leader?
Working with a diverse team of other professionals and learning from them will be the highlight for me, as well as going to my first LibLearnX and ALA conferences!