Meet a Youth Services Librarian: Robin

Have you ever wanted to learn more about your local librarians? In a continuing blog post series, we'll be featuring short interviews with our Youth Services Librarians to help you get to know us a little better. Our first librarian to be featured was Dana. 

Today's featured librarian is Robin Fosdick. Our patrons often refer to her as the "tall, dark-haired librarian" whom introduced many toddlers in our community to the "sleeping bunnies" song at story time. Those of us privileged to work with Robin know her as a champion of teen library services, a voracious graphic novel reader, a dog lover, doll collector, chocolate lover, graphic designer, and the go-to person for vampire, zombie, and faerie book recommendations. 

Robin celebrating a childhood birthday.

What did your friends/family say when you began working as a librarian?

My grade school librarian, Ms. Ernst, said to my mother, "What took her so long to figure that out?" I practically lived in the library as a child.

What is your favorite children's book?

The Rescuers by M. Sharp, The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle, and anything with ghosts or time travel or dolls...

What is your favorite aspect of your job?

Buying all the graphic novels for the library. YAY! Comics! Manga!...Making the kittens at the Reference Desk say, "meow!" when little kids pet them. (The kittens are part of the sculpture that sits on the desk.)

Do you have a unique talent?


Hello Kitty Radar - I always, always know whenever there's something cool by Sanrio/Hello Kitty anywhere around me. That exact pink color makes my subconscious go SQUEEEEE!

Tell us a fun fact about yourself.


I collect dolls and toys - my house looks like a toy store!

Meet a Youth Services Librarian: Dana

Dana Campbell, Youth Services Librarian

Have you ever wanted to learn more about your local librarians? We'll be featuring interviews with our Youth Services Librarians on this blog in the coming weeks and months. You may recognize our first featured librarian, Dana Campbell. Dana brings her outgoing personality, contagious love of children's books, and enthusiasm for promoting early literacy in our community. She juggles many hats as a Youth Services Librarian. She's a regular storyteller at Storytime and Mother Goose Asks "Why?", and one of the facilitators of the Kids Book Club. She purchases materials in the juvenile nonfiction collection in the areas of social sciences, health, technology, literature, history, and biography. Dana is also the materials selector for the Early Reader [E-R] collection. In addition, she brings her love of literacy and animals to the community by organizing the R.E.A.D. Dogs program for beginning readers at the library.

What drew you to Youth Services and/or librarianship?

I was working as a branch manager for a different system. I had realized I was having a great time working with kids, visiting schools, building a strong library relationship with the community. I was hooked. I decided to take a chance and become a Youth Services Librarian. It has been an adventure ever since!


Favorite Children's Book:

As a little girl, it was Henny Penny. My favorite now is The Baby Beebee Bird written by Diane Redfield Massie and illustrated by Steven Kellogg.

Most Memorable Story:

Too many to think about!


Unique Talent:

Creative thinking! Want to make something, but don't know how? Ask me! I love to create craft activities for kids.


Fun Fact:

Believe it or not, I am a bicycle girl. I love to ride.

Meet the Early Literacy Coordinator!

Early Literacy Coordinator

Meet Peik-Kuan Lim, the Early Literacy Coordinator for the Corvallis-Benton County Public Library. She brings Storytime to them! The Corvallis-Benton County Library offers Storytime at the library for infants, toddlers, wobblers and preschool children. As the Early Literacy Coordinator for the Library, Peik-Kuan brings Storytime to preschools and to day care facilties and providers. She provides these outreach activities to children who cannot get to the library for Storytime. If you are picturing Peik-Kuan standing in front of a group of children sitting quietly in neat rows, you do not have a clear picture of what she does. When Peik-Kuan brings Storytime to preschool children, she brings props, crafts and an ability to lead a group of children based on their age, mood and developmental needs. She uses her knowledge of early brain development to structure her programs and sometimes even re-structure them on the fly to meet the needs of the day. Oftentimes they spend more time singing and dancing about letters and concepts than sitting down in one spot and listening to her read a book. She says that working with special needs children requires many of the same tools. It can require some additional flexibility, but she goes through the same process to create those programs as well.

Early literacy is much more than introducing letters and words on the page. Peik-Kuan's early literacy programs create context and exposure that will help turn children into active readers. She coordinates programs that include music, art and dance, and she looks for ways to engage all of their senses. She says early literacy is about getting children comfortable with and interested in written language in any number of ways. Peik-Kuan also says children exposed reading from a young age will learn very early on how to sit and hold a book, and that is the beginning of a reader!

Peik-Kuan enjoys collaborating with her colleagues in selecting materials and assisting them in program creation. She says her colleagues are as much a resource to her as she is to them. They bounce ideas off one another and work well as a team. She also provides guidance to volunteers, parents and teachers. She has spent time developing and maintaining relationships with many agencies in the area. In this way, she can help them serve the community, and they can provide resources for our library programs. For example, she has worked with the Oregon State University Head Start program and given them advice on what age-appropriate items will encourage reading.

Peik-Kuan says she finds the most important part of her job is the ability connect with children. It is this ability that allows her to get their attention and open them up to learning. She also says she feels lucky to have one of those few jobs where she gets hugs wherever she goes.

--Interview from "Read and Recycle: City of Corvallis Employee Newsletter," Volume 21, No. 10, September 30, 2011