The Center for Research Libraries (CRL) was honored to be recognized as the Chicago Employer of the Year at the Best Buddies
Champion of the Year Gala for our partnership with the Best Buddies Jobs program, an integrated employment program that support people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) find meaningful work.
In May 2024, CRL partnered with Best Buddies Jobs program to fill essential positions on CRL’s metadata team. Through this partnership, we have hired three part-time metadata assistants who each work up to eighteen hours a week on a variety of projects that enhance access to and preservation of the collection.
While partnering with Best Buddies made excellent business sense for CRL, I would like to step outside the usual formality of a news story to share a more personal perspective, with the hope it will inspire our member libraries to explore staffing solutions through Best Buddies.
Working with Best Buddies
Hiring people with IDD at CRL has been an ambition of mine for over a decade. I was inspired by the 2011 New York Times article by David Bornstein “For Some With Autism, Jobs to Match Their Talents” It seemed to me that a great deal of the work we do in the metadata and digitization departments are not just good job opportunities, but they offer meaningful opportunities for growth.
My goal was not just in hiring individuals to do tasks but to build something that would become a integral part of CRL operations. But the road from ambition to success in libraries is not one that we travel alone. It took the partnership of Best Buddies, a supportive HR team, Andrea Duntz - Chief Operating Officer, and Molly Sera - Human Resources Assistant, and the leadership of our talented and experienced program manager, Yoseline Louisma, to make this happen.
Getting started was easy. After completing a Best Buddies Jobs form, we met with Best Buddies representatives to discuss our work, tour our spaces, and identify suitable roles. Best Buddies then quickly matched us with a candidate whose skills and interests aligned with our needs. They guided the candidate, and us, through interviews, and accompanied the new hire on their first day to ensure a smooth start.
Seeing the success of our first hire, we reached out to Best Buddies to ask about hiring additional employees. Best Buddies provided the same supportive guidance and enthusiasm with each subsequent hire. Each new team member brought unique skills and experiences to CRL while quickly reaching the same production levels we require of all our metadata assistants. All are fully integrated, self-motivated members of the metadata team and vital to our success.
Leadership and Support
It is important to highlight the leadership of Yoseline Louisma. Yoseline has been a steady force of change at CRL for almost twenty-five years. First hired as a cataloger on CRL’s dissertation cataloging project in 2001, her skills as a manager quickly became evident and she was promoted to lead that project a short time later. Every large-scale metadata project and many daily operational workflows since then have benefited from either her participation or her leadership. Her commitment to quality metadata and dedication to fostering a welcoming, supportive work environment for her staff have been invaluable for making the partnership with Best Buddies successful.
Spotlighting Briony Mikell
At the Champion of the Year Gala, Briony Mikell, our first Best Buddies hire, was celebrated for her Jobs Success Story. In a video interview, recorded at CRL, she reflected on her work, her experience with the program and her resulting personal growth. She shared that finding fulfilling work not only made her proud to contribute to CRL, it gave her the confidence to reach an important personal goal--becoming a published author.
Future Directions
My colleague, Marie Waltz - Head of Access Initiatives and Collections Care, and I left the Champion of the Year Gala inspired to expand our partnership with Best Buddies. We encourage our member libraries and partners to consider teaming up with Best Buddies in your area. To find out more about Best Buddies Jobs visit https://www.bestbuddies.org/hire/
Tremendous thanks to Best Buddies International for sharing the photographs and video with CRL.
Creative Director/Producer: Elizabeth Fay Directory of Photography: Wilbert Cheng Tony Fay: Video Editor