Library Technology Success Stories

Congratulations to our LT 2023 Graduates!

Associate of Science

• Joshua Greller
• Angela Lee
• Jade Montez
• Sohail Razaq
• Julie Wintrip 

Certificate of Achievement

• Taylor Fuller
• Kavitha Gunanidhi
• Laima Haider
• Angela Lee
• Ellen Mizuhara
• Sohail Razaq

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Kavitha Gunanidhi

Kavitha completed a Bachelor of Mathematics degree in India, after which she got married and moved to the US with her husband and two kids (now in 10th and 2nd grades). When her daughter was small Kavitha used to take her to story-time at the public library, during which time she became interested in working at a library.

She later learned about the LT program at DVC and started taking classes. Kavitha would like to thank all her DVC instructors, whose course she found very interesting and motivating. A hardworking and persistent student, she most enjoyed Access & Technical Services in Library because she learned so much in this course and enjoyed working on the final project with her groupmates.

In her Job Skills for Libraries course, Kavitha found mock interviews to be very helpful, and she obtained the Instructional Media Assistant job she wanted at Ygnacio Valley High School. She enjoys her work and earns a good salary. Kavitha's LT internship was completed at Charleswood Middle School with Wendy Cunningham, who was so patient and from whom she learned so much. Kavitha also found the support and guidance she received from Tamar Kirschner, LT Program Coordinator, to be invaluable.

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Beth Morris

Beth has actually been a librarian for many years with a master's in library science. However, in 2014 she was looking for a job, and started taking LT classes at Cuesta College to increase her skills. She eventually transferred to DVC due to incompatible work experience requirements in the Cuesta program. Beth learned new things in all her classes and says that the LT Program at DVC is awesome and the instructors are always ready to meet and help you. She especially loved learning how to make libguides in her Reference and Research class and being able to complete her work experience requirement at her own school site.

Every interaction with Beth speaks loudly about her enthusiasm for learning and service. She carefully listens to and truly sees each person. Beth has recently been tenured as the teacher librarian at Martin Luther King Jr Middle School in Madera, CA and coaches the Academic Pentathlon team. She is hoping to start a yoga and mindfulness program. Additionally, Beth works as a librarian at Academy of Chinese Culture and Health Sciences in Oakland, CA. She would love to one day teach a class in the DVC LT program.

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Jenise Perez

Jenise learned about the LT Program through a librarian at the El Cerrito Branch Library and has had an overall good experience. Creative writing class really got her creative juices flowing, gave her the structure to write and reminded her that she really likes writing. Some memorable inside jokes were "El biblioburro", her funny little stick guy and the book mobile drawing. Her love of life, varied experiences, and wide-spread interests enriched every activity in our courses. Jenise found her internship at Niebyl Proctor Marxist Library in Oakland. She continued learning a lot about cataloging in Koha in MLA format and gained insight into how some special libraries are woefully underfunded.

She is currently working at Oakland Public Library, where she is applying for a permanent position. She plans to pursue an MLIS starting in the fall and is interested in learning more about archives, collection management and acquisitions. 

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Oksana Starzhevskaya-Stowell

Oksana came to the U.S. in 1999 and had her first child while finishing her second master's degree. Unfortunately, due to ongoing health issues, she was unable to return to academia or pursue her planned career in regional planning. Having spent her free time at her own school library and helping there since fourth grade, and then volunteering in her children’s school libraries, she felt quite at home in that environment.

As a university student, she would go to Saint Petersburg Academic Library to research material for her thesis and the weekends spent there were so memorable that she keeps her library card as a memento.

Later, she researched, summarized and translated folk literature for a professor who was writing a book. Recently, she discovered that her previous degrees had expired, and she started thinking seriously about a career in an academic library setting. While researching graduate degrees in library science, she came across the Google suggestion: “Why don’t you look at the LT program at DVC.” She emailed Tamar (Program Coordinator) and decided not to expect a quick reply (yet she was checking her email every half hour). When she received Tamar’s message the next day, she was delighted at how welcoming and encouraging it was. She applied to the program right away, deciding to start with an "easy" class. There was a 1-credit summer class with Emily that she thought would definitely not take too much effort to complete. How wrong she was!! The class pace was very intense, and she enjoyed every moment of it.

Oksana then knew that she wanted to take every single class from the LT program. She enjoyed them all and was very curious to observe the instruction methods that professors had chosen for online classes. Some favorite parts: Pestering her friends and family to let her conduct reference interviews and creating a libguide in Amelie's Reference and Research Services class; shopping for books in GOBI and working on a group project entitled, “Academic Library as a Third Space” in Tamar’s Access & Technical Services class; doing original cataloging in Linda’s Cataloging class; digitizing her family’s negatives and creating metadata for them in Jackie's Digital Assets class.

Oksana shares her extensive knowledge and experience generously and collegially. She completed her internship at the DVC Library, with a goal to decide whether she wants to work in the Technical or Circulation services departments. She is still undecided. She loves helping students find what they need and making them feel welcome, but she also loves working with records, requesting interlibrary loans, and generating analytical reports in the Alma catalog. Both Ricardo and Tatiana, Senior Library Techs at DVC, were very patient and attuned to her interests, strengths, and weaknesses, and provided opportunities for her to learn and improve, and the whole faculty and staff provided her with interesting learning experiences. She says she is very grateful to everyone and to her wonderful instructors for making her experience at DVC so memorable. She was such a valued member of the team that she has since been hired to work at the San Ramon Campus as a Library Tech, and hopes to continue to learn from them.

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Tracy Van Zanten

After taking some graduate classes in the San Jose State Library Science program in the 90s, Tracy followed a different path to become an administrator at her church. This job also required the organization of information and she additionally became the unofficial church historian. When her job ended, she returned to her attention to library work and was delighted to discover the LT Program at DVC, which she began in summer 2019.

After the pandemic shutdowns, she found herself wondering what was realistic to pursue, but continued her classes and stayed open to possibilities. Little did she know that she would discover an area that linked many of her interests, skills and passions in her Info Organization & Management and Digital Assets classes, where she learned about Archives.

Tracy loves learning about people’s lives and history from documentaries, museums and visitor centers, but she hadn't known much about the work that goes on behind the scenes. She completed her internship at the Washington Township Museum of Local History in Fremont, where she worked on projects that helped her learn the steps involved in cataloging photographs and processing archival collections. She really enjoyed the internship and learned a tremendous amount.

Additionally, she discovered how much she enjoys the museum and archive environment—being with like-minded people (the staff and visitors); and being in an environment where curiosity, research, and taking time to think critically are valued, encouraged and necessary. Tracy most enjoyed discussion boards in her Canvas courses, where students could delve into topics and issues, and she learned so much from her classmates as everyone shared their own understanding of the content, their perspectives, and experiences. She found the posts to be a very meaningful way to engage with what she was learning, and also how they offered a way to journey through the semester together.

Moving to online Info Organization & Management classes on Zoom in spring 2020 was not something Tracy could envision herself doing, but Tracy felt that Linda took great care in helping students figure out how to manage it, and in also checking in each week to see how they were doing. Despite the very different format of the class, they did learn cataloging! Tracy feels there is such a richness and appeal in helping people find the information they are seeking, and in the archive realm, to connecting people with their and other’s histories, and overall to make what they are looking for discoverable and accessible.

She looks forward to being part of this process and is very thankful for the excellent foundation and experiences that she has gained from the LT program. She would like to thank all of her instructors. Her instructors appreciated her thoughtful and probing comments and agree that her contributions advanced our collective knowledge and understanding. Tracy is currently looking at entry level positions in an archive setting and until then, continues to volunteer at the Washington Township Museum and to take archive-related classes from other institutions.

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Maggie Rogers - DVC library technology graduate

"I had been a stay-at-home mom with a publishing background and lot of experience volunteering in my daughters' school libraries. I was searching for a new path to return to work and a library position opened up that matched my interest and skill set. I enrolled in the LT Program as soon as I became a Library Clerk with the Oakland Unified School District. 

Being part of a cohort of similar students provided me with a community of colleagues to share ideas with and ask for advice. One of the first courses we took taught us about different kinds of libraries. Although my current path is in school libraries, I was excited to know about other options for later down the road. Many of the skills we learned and ideas we discussed throughout all of the courses in the program can be applied to a large variety of school, professional, medical, and other library settings.

I am currently employed full time as a Library Technician at Montera Middle School in Oakland, where I'm responsible for collection development, displays, and library policies and procedures. I would definitely recommend the LT Program to others. It is a great place to gain a foundation in library technology and services. The variety of courses, the experienced instructors who are also library professionals, and the community of students all work together to provide a strong program.

I think that libraries are constantly expanding their services to their patrons, and continue to look for new ways for patrons to access information and services. In our fast-paced world, there is greater need for a reliable access point to information, whether that be through books, databases, or simply internet service. And for students, a library provides a basic access point to literacy. These aspects of library technology are still extremely relevant. If one has a passion for reading, information, and providing important services such as these, then a library technology career is a great place to start.”

Christine Freeman - DVC library technology graduate