St. Helens Public Library in search of a new youth librarian

The St. Helens Public Library is in search of a new youth librarian.

The search follows the resignation of the current youth librarian, Aryn Keeney, who accepted a position with another library in the Portland area.

“Aryn moved on to another library," Library Director Suzanne Bishop said. "I think they feel like it’s a better fit for them. We’re certainly going to miss them quite a bit. They made some really great connections in the community and I know we have some families who have said several times how much they have missed having them here.”

In a town the size of St. Helens, the youth librarian plays an important role in the community, Bishop said.

“A youth librarian is really the most visible member of the public library staff,” she said. “Traditionally they’re really emissaries for the library. The connections that youth librarians make with the community, starting with grownups and their babies coming into the library, has a powerful impact on how the library is able to serve the community.”

With the position now open, the library is tweaking the job description to include responsibilities in the library's Makerspace, where visitors can access technology and tools.

“It does give us an opportunity that we wouldn’t have possibly otherwise had, which is to change the job description,” Bishop said. “We lost our Makerspace tech position last year at about this time. We have been really working hard to get the Makerspace back up and running. Because we have such a small staff, we haven’t been able to do that at the level that we were wanting to.”

Under the revised youth librarian job description, Bishop said about 60% of the time would be devoted to traditional youth librarian responsibilities, such as storytelling and reaching out to the community for programming.

The other 40% would be devoted to getting the Makerspace back up and running, presenting programs in the Makerspace and coordinating with community members to present programs as well.

“It is fairly common now for youth librarians to be engaged quite a bit in Makerspaces," Bishop said.

Bishop said she appreciates how Keeney was able to connect with families in the community.

“They were very attentive to providing good programming in the library, some really nice outreach in the community with preschools,” Bishop said. “They had a really nice way with kiddos and a very nice connection with teens. They were really starting to build a teen program here that I’m hoping we’ll be able to build on.”

The city of St. Helens has posted the job opening, which can be accessed by visiting sthelensoregon.applicantpro.com/jobs.