Disclaimer: The audio in this episode has an unfortunate faint buzzing sound in the background that we have tried and failed to remove without completely ruining the interview audio. So it's there, and we apologize. But this interview was too good not to share, and if you listen for a few minutes you sort of get used to it.  Sorry again!

Former branch librarian and current Collections manager Brent Wilson joins us in the Chinguacousy branch audio recording studio to discuss the finer points of librarianship and share the important lesson he learned early on in his career: You've got to go full garbage. 

Confusing and seemingly irrelevant to the job? Exactly.

From feel-good to do-better, Volunteer Services at Brampton Library have evolved into a self aware, mission driven passion project for the Supervisor of the service, Rada Micic - and it shows. We sit down with Rada as she explains her vision for the value of volunteerism, the opportunity for mutual growth and the important role that the library plays within this realm.  

In our first episode of 2020, we are joined in the Chinguacousy branch audio recording studio with our guest and library branch manager, Zarena Cassar. 

Zarena gives us the low down on libraries from a management perspective, and also walks us through a throwback story from Gore Meadows Branch, where she experienced a very particular kind of professional challenge that will leave us majorly envious and slightly stressed out. 

Branch librarian and makerspace extraordinaire Ben Smeets joins us at the Chinguacousy Branch audio recording studio to discuss the finer points of opening a new branch. We quiz Ben on is reading habits, professional challenges and, of course, how 3D printers can help local turtles. 

What drives decision making at the library? We take a dive into the world of data and statistics with Alison Clarke, the Performance Measures and Data Coordinator at Brampton Library. What stories do the numbers tell us? What is evidence based decision making? And most importantly: how, in fact, does someone "concatenate" something?

We sit down with Rebecca Raven, the CEO of Brampton Library, to explore what librarianship looked like before the likes of Google, and what it means to work in an ever adapting public institution. Also, catch some really important discussion about ready reference, pre-pinterest picture collections and fish taxidermy. Yep, you read that correctly. 

The This American Life Podcast episode Rebecca refers to in our discussion.

In our premier episode of Brampton Library Stories, we talk to a veteran of our library system, Mike A. 

Mike helps us take a look back at what the library used to be, and gives us some insight into what it means to be "a guy" in the context of the librarian stereotype. We will also share the official moment that Mike got his very own DJ name - and since it's our first ever recording, we say things like "stay tuned" a lot.