Looking For a Job? Your Local Library Just Might Be Able to Help

For years, Enrique Ramirez worked as a luggage handler at San Francisco International Airport. But when his limited English reading skills kept him from qualifying for jobs requiring more skills, he turned to the South San Francisco Main Library on West Orange Avenue. 

There, he found Project Read, a regional San Mateo literacy program, which helped him learn new skills to get the promotion that he was looking for. He worked one-on-one with a tutor and eventually was promoted to a supervisor position at his job.  

"It helped a lot just having the support," said Ramirez, who was even able to bring in material from work to go through with his tutor. "After a while my boss really noticed a difference in my weekly reports," which became better as he improved his English skills.

The main library has been helping South San Francisco residents build skills to use in the workforce for years, but since the recession hit, it has seen a new crop of patrons turn to the library for professional development.  While there are plenty of people who still use  Project Read for help with basic literacy skills, today's unemployed people are victims of an economy that has hit people at all levels of background and education.  They're looking for sophisticated and diverse services to help them in their job hunt, and they've turned up at the library in increasing numbers.

"One day I walked through and counted 17 people on laptops," says Assistant Library Director Cheryl Grantano-Rich.

This might seem like a small number, but it's large for the intimate floor space at the main library. Grantano-Rich said the library has noticed a distinct rise in traffic since the recession hit, as free WiFi and a full spectrum of periodicals have been bringing people by the dozens.

"We also see a lot of people come in with children while story times are going on so they can use our job searching databases while their children are being watched," she said.           

The library has long offered a wide array of community information. There's a community information handbook that highlights San Mateo County education and employment training classes, as well as Project Read programs and classes that help residents with financial questions.

It has also hosted programs with the Employment Development Department, a statewide program that jobless people; Job Star, a statewide library program to help find local jobs; and Peninsula Works, a San Mateo County job-counseling program. But now the library is taking its job services to the next level.

It recently added a new system, Career Transitions, to help people looking for jobs. Transitions is a database accessible with a library card that lets users explore career opportunities based on their interests and the current job market, assess their strengths and weaknesses, tailor their resumes and get interview tips. The aim of Career Transitions is to take all of the help provided by different agencies and put it into one central hub. Businesses can also use it to find employees.

Career Transitions doesn't burden the library's already reduced budget. The new program is funded by the California State Library to help struggling libraries keep up with the demand for more job-hunting patrons.  

The library is hoping the Career Transitions database draws new crowds to the public library, as well as to community events such as the Peninsula Works fair on Sept. 30, which will feature job counselors and HR specialists, who will coach people one-on-one for interviews and teach people about emerging industries.

"We're just here to serve, and as best we can in this unsure climate," said Grantano-Rich.