Last Fall, I attended the annual Future of Libraries 2024 – Pacific Library Partnership.
The theme was: Navigating Change – Tools for Conquering Contemporary Challenges. I look forward to attending these conferences and listening to library stories out in the wild. The conference location is at the Koret Auditorium at the San Francisco Public Library.
The conference began at 9:00am with welcoming remarks and an agenda:
- Between the Lines: Decoding and Defying Censorship in Libraries
- Future of the MLIS Degree
- Networking Event
- Serving a Multilingual Community
- Sustainability Programming & Projects
- Closing the Day
In the fourth segment, Serving a Multilingual Community, a librarian named Richard Le took the stage. Richard is the North Beach Branch Manager with SFPL and he has a warm and friendly personality. He stood at the podium and asked the audience: Has anyone been to SF Chinatown? Has anyone ever had Chinese food? Do you know the origin of Chinese food? Dim Sum? Has anyone investigated their family history?
Richard then begins to tell a story about one day in 2008 when an elderly patron approached him at the reference desk with a question. The patron wanted to find the phone number for his long-lost college roommate; however, it had been 40 years, and he did not have a location, a full name, or an age—the only information he remembered was that they spent one year together in the dorms at Brigham Young University.
Richard shared his thought process: Let’s start with yearbooks. He found a photo, the major and graduation date. Richard also found a donation to the school in the name of this long-lost classmate. And finally found a voter registration record. After 30 minutes of research, Richard tracked down the roommate!
Richard found his purpose—helping library users find long-lost relatives, property records, or military records. Rather than showing his patrons how to use the database or scour newspapers, he takes groups on walking tours. They meet outside the library, and they head out to Chinatown. Along the tour, he tells stories about the area, even ghost stories about the secret alleyway, buildings, and ethnic groups. He introduces them to dim-sum and its origin. He smiles as he explains that we all love to eat and share recipes. He confesses that he relies on the community to tell the stories.
When the tour ends, he brings the group back to the library where he connects them to their programs. Richard does this outreach every month, including tours of the North Beach neighborhood, and he has been doing this since 2010.
Richard inspires us to adapt and innovate. And he shows us how it’s done: food + storytelling + activity = learn by doing.
You take something, like genealogy. You fuse it with a fun and meaningful experience. And watch connections happen as strangers open up about their challenges and triumphs.
The moral of the story is how will you build your own hyperlinked communities?
“Our role extends beyond providing resources—we become facilitators of dialogue, creators of inclusive spaces, and active participants in the lives of those we serve”. —Michael Stephens
How can I apply this strategy to my own practice? How can I foster genuine connections within my community? In what ways can the library serve as a platform for shared experiences and collective growth?
Your post was such a great read! I’m moved to hear about the story of how Richard went above and beyond to help the elderly patron find his long lost roomate from 40 years ago. I feel as if I would not have been able to do nearly as an efficient job at that, especially with the limited information. I can also really appreciate how he turned the work that he cares about into a whole experience for others with his cultural walking tours. What a great way to build community that extends outside of the physical walls of a library. Thanks for sharing!