Please welcome American Career College's new librarian Ka Yee Chiu! Learn more about her and her passion for helping others learn.
Tell us more about yourself, your background?
Academically, I went to San Jose State University to become a librarian. I hold a master’s in library and information sciences where I focused my studies on library instruction and providing library services to distance education students. It seems that I have been in higher education pretty much all my professional life because before I became a librarian, I worked with college students developing their leadership and organizational skills at the Asian American/Pacific Islander Resource Center at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Which just so happens to be where I went to college as well, so GO BANANA SLUGS! As we all know, we are more than what we do for a living, so in my spare time, when I am away from work, I enjoy reading, coloring (yes, adult coloring really is a thing and a stress reliever), watching Formula 1, enjoying the outdoors and just being around friends and family.
What made you interested in joining ACC?
I wanted to join ACC because I was looking for an opportunity to learn and grow as a professional. This position really allows me to utilize the skills I already have as a librarian, but it also allows me to learn more about the administrative side of things, managing budgets, working with library resource vendors, basically all the behind-the-scenes stuff that happens so that our students, staff and faculty have the resources they need academically.
What will be your primary goals and responsibilities?
To make sure ACC students, staff and faculty have the library resources and services for academic success. This involves making sure our collections are up to date with the latest resources, providing library instruction for students and faculty, making sure library representatives at each campus are up to date with the latest library information and making the library a place for students to access accurate information.
What do you find most interesting about your job so far?
The most interesting thing about my job so far is how amazingly supportive everyone is with each other. That doesn’t happen at everywhere and it is really great that we are all here to support our students.
What is your life motto?
Helen Keller said it best: “Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.” I always want to be surrounded by people who want to work together. In this case, I want to work together with everyone so that our students are successful!
Who/what is your biggest inspiration/influence?
My parents have always inspired me to be who I wanted to be, they never forced me to be one thing or another and just let me choose where I wanted to go. That is probably how I became a librarian. The other thing that has always inspired me to do better is hearing about their struggle when my parents first immigrated to this country. They left everything they knew behind for what my mom calls “a new adventure.” It is that optimism that continues to guide me to this day.
What is one thing that may surprise people about you?
Of all the different iterations of Star Trek that have aired on TV, Enterprise is my favorite; however The Next Generation comes in a close second. Do not even get me started on Deep Space Nine.
