I am beyond grateful to have had Holly Okuhara as my APALA mentor over the past year. Through our virtual meetings and email exchanges, Holly expanded my skill sets, confidence, and perspectives on librarianship. During our time together, I completed my MLIS degree and secured a full-time job. Amidst the ever-changing library landscape, Holly kept me grounded.
As an early career public librarian interested in youth services, I sought a mentor with a breadth and depth of experience to inform my path as a library professional. Beyond Holly’s extensive experience from a Youth Services Librarian to an Assistant Director, her care, candor, and curiosity taught me invaluable lessons.
While I had previously worked at a few different public library systems, Holly’s insights revolutionized my approach to job applications, interviews, and salary negotiation. With her guidance, I developed actionable goals and engaged my network to set myself up for a successful job search. Even though we live thousands of miles apart, Holly used her own expansive professional community through ALA and APALA to connect me to a nearby mentor. This bonus mentor gave me tailored advice on navigating the Washington, D.C. area’s public library job market. Holly modeled for me the value of sustaining long-term professional networks within and beyond the library systems in which we work.
Throughout my job search, I knew the possibility that my first position out of graduate school could be a supervisory and managerial role. While I felt uncertain about transitioning to such a position, Holly aided me in pinpointing my concerns, unpacking my expectations, and growing as a future leader. By hearing insights and anecdotes from her career, I felt reassured and better prepared to show up in a supervisory or managerial role.
Interwoven into Holly and I’s conversations throughout the past year was a shared vision for what public libraries can and should be for our communities. From menstrual product distributions to creative programs led by local refugees, we exchanged stories of some of our favorite offerings in our library systems. These moments helped me feel a deeper connection to the work of APALA and public libraries nationwide. Thanks to Holly, I see myself as part of a broader network of librarians across time and space. I am eager to carry such legacies forward through my career and, hopefully, protégés of my own one day.
Bio: Shom Tiwari is a queer, gender non-binary South Asian American librarian and cultural heritage worker. They are the Assistant Circulation Manager at the Kingstowne Regional Library of the Fairfax County Public Library. Shom has six years of experience working at libraries across North Carolina, Maryland, and Virginia. This May, they graduated from the University of Maryland College Park with a Master of Library and Information Science as well as a Certificate in Museum Studies and Material Culture.