New librarian sees each open book as a new opportunity
The San Benito County Free Library has a new friend in Nora
Conte, who started as the new county librarian Oct. 9. Conte spent
three decades working for San Jose city libraries and brings a
life-long love of books and reading with her. She and her husband
moved to San Juan Bautista six years ago and she is pleased to be
serving her community.
New librarian sees each open book as a new opportunity
The San Benito County Free Library has a new friend in Nora Conte, who started as the new county librarian Oct. 9. Conte spent three decades working for San Jose city libraries and brings a life-long love of books and reading with her. She and her husband moved to San Juan Bautista six years ago and she is pleased to be serving her community.
Conte remembers well how trips to the library were a treat for her family as a girl and cites author Leo Lionni, who wrote such children’s classics as “Frederick,” “Fish is Fish” and “Little Blue and Little Yellow,” as favorite reads.
In her first week on the job, she is still acclimating to the facility but hopes to create new programs and draw more people through the double doors on Fifth Street.
“We want the community to feel welcome,” Conte said. “The staff is friendly and inviting. We want to deliver excellent customer service.”
Conte took a few minutes from her busy first week to meet with the Pinnacle to share her thoughts on the job and her vision for the library.
Q: Where did you study to be a librarian and what drew you to the field?
A: I started in San Jose and worked over 30years. I’ve been a library clerk, a library assistant, a children’s librarian and an adult services librarian. I worked my way up the ranks and learned about being a librarian on the job. It’s a wonderful opportunity and experience to work in such a wonderful profession. I am still learning, still growing because there are so many facets to keep up with the field. When I started we used catalogue cards and now we use the Internet.
Q: How has your time with the San Jose city library system prepared you to be the county librarian here?
A: I’ve done adult services and outreach programs for the community. I helped open a Latin-American library for the city of San Jose. I have supervised small, large and medium libraries. Recently, I helped to open the [Dr. Roberto Cruz] Alum Rock branch facility, which is a 26,000 square feet state of the art library.
Q: What do you see as the mission for the San Benito County library?
A: We do have a mission statement – to provide information, to have services that are responsive. It is important to meet the needs of the community and to be aware and familiar with what the needs are, be it reading, recreation or help with work. We want to work in concert with community services, the Friends of the Library and create partnership programs that will better serve the community. As I continue to interface with customers I will discover their needs. Library programs need to be tailor-made for each community…when you listen, you create a vision that is shared.
Q: What are some of the best-kept secrets of the county library or libraries in general?
A: We have a lot of self-help material – from small remodeling projects to materials on how to write a resume. We have computers where people can send e-mail to relatives or communicate with friends. If we don’t have a book, we can request books from other libraries. We do our very best to get materials whether from Santa Clara or Monterey counties. I hope this isn’t a secret, but when parents bring children or little ones to story hour it is one of the first experiences for children to participate as a group. They listen to stories. They are exposed to children’s literature, new vocabulary and they develop their attention span.
Q: Are there any things you’d like to see improved at the local library?
A: I’d like to develop an outreach program. I want to work with the staff and community to create programs that are responsive within the confines of available resources. We will look at attendance and attendance at events. We want to increase use of the library.
Q: What is the biggest challenge you have faced as a librarian?
A: One of the biggest challenges is to make sure that you are able to secure resources to be able to provide the best customer services to taxpayers.
Q: What are some of your favorite books or authors?
A: I like John Steinbeck. I like to read his materials and they are classics, but I also really like children’s books. One of my favorite authors is Leo Lionni because as a child [his books] were my introduction to a love of reading. It started me on this journey. If you can read, you can spell, you can write and it opens all these doors. It led me to my profession. Every time you open a book, you open an opportunity for yourself.
