Alea Perez
Contents
Guest
Alea Perez is a Youth Services Manager in the Chicago suburbs and she has worked in libraries for 16 years (10 in management). Alea grew up in libraries while her mother served as a Youth Services librarian for 30 years, starting when she was in elementary school.
"Everyone thought I loved to read when I was young, but it wasn’t until I discovered sci-fi in 7th grade that I really fell in love with books and libraries. I have fond memories of spending time in the supply room of my childhood library, as I got roped into program preparation and other volunteer opportunities. While in college, I swore I wasn’t going to follow in my mom’s footsteps and avoided libraries as a profession for years after graduating.
Now that I’m here and have settled in, I like to do what I can to address the underrepresentation of BIPOC library workers at the degreed level. I Also occasionally get into good trouble for my belief that libraries aren’t and can’t be neutral, and that there is no magical barrier between us and the rest of the world."
"I can't pretend that my time in libraries has been perfect or easy. The racial makeup of the profession often leaves me at odds when it comes to theory versus praxis, to boundaries, concepts of professionalism, and the validity or lack thereof of the concept of neutrality. But I also know people like me belong in libraries, making decisions in libraries on behalf of community members who look, who think, and who come from backgrounds like me."
Credits
Without Libraries was created to provide librarians a platform to share stories about education, discuss current programs, and consider life without libraries. Libraries provide access to information and educational resources, promoting literacy, critical thinking skills, and community building by offering a safe space for people to learn, research, and connect with others. Join the conversation at Past Forward.
Guest: Alea Perez
Produced by: Past Forward
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Books
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Transcription
Alea Perez: I can't pretend that my time in libraries has been perfect or easy. The racial makeup of the profession often leaves me at odds when it comes to theory versus praxis, to boundaries, concepts of professionalism, and the validity or lack thereof of the concept of neutrality. But I also know people like me belong in libraries, making decisions in libraries on behalf of community members who look, who think, and who come from backgrounds like me.
[music]
Whether I wanted to admit it or not, libraries and I were always going to find our way to each other. My name is Alea Perez, and I'm the Youth Services Manager at Roselle Public Library District located in the Northwest Chicago suburb. I've worked in libraries for 16 years, but even before that, I grew up in them while my mother served as a youth services librarian in my hometown of Yuma, Arizona, starting when I was 11 years old. Growing up in a rural agricultural community that regularly saw unemployment rates hovering around 24%, and in a community where the color of my skin and my last name got me automatically labeled as a "at-risk youth," Libraries quickly proved to be a path toward something different and more. By nature of having a parent who worked in a library, I quickly got roped into being a library volunteer, providing support for annual teddy bear picnics, summer reading programs, and more.
In the seventh grade, while I died and fresh off my first -time reading The Giver by Lois Lowry, I became a voracious library user, angling to it as often as possible to find more science fiction to satiate my unending appetite for more imagined future worlds and the possibilities that they provide, while also at their core reflecting the world that we live in. Despite my fond memories of taking naps in the storytime room and becoming close to the library staff that my mother worked with, I resisted libraries when I made my way to my post-secondary education, if for no other reason than to reject the most obvious path. When I found my way back, this time it would seem for good. I was greeted by all of the joys I expected to find in helping others, whether it was children attending storytimes or grateful older adults learning how to sign up for email and use a mouse.
I can't pretend that my time in libraries has been perfect or easy. The racial makeup of the profession often leaves me at odds when it comes to theory versus praxis, to boundaries, concepts of professionalism, and the validity or lack thereof of the concept of neutrality. But I also know people like me belong in libraries, making decisions in libraries on behalf of community members who look, who think, and who come from backgrounds like me. Just like in the larger world, library staff should reflect the realities of our society outside of library walls.
Libraries are a microcosm of our society at large, reflecting back on us all of the many ways in which we need to grow and change to be truly welcoming to all. But just like the science fiction books that hooked me so completely as a young teen, libraries are also a vision of what society can be if we aim to do and be better. Libraries are a model of how our communities can come together, provide for one another, and uplift one another. Libraries are, for many of us, a path to new opportunities.
[music]
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