Guam and CNMI library officials and staff members pose for a group photo on Friday, after a week-long professional development training focused on library best practices. In photo: Joeten-Kiyu Public Library’s Beth Demapan, Celina Foreman, Leoralynn Terlaje, Carrie Camacho, Omar Manacop, Joey Songsong, and Director Erlinda Naputi with Guam Public Library System’s Angie Taitague, Florence Taitague, Bryan Pacheco, Jenelle Cruz, and Jane Dorion.
JOETEN-KIYU Public Library and the Guam Public Library System held the first “Un Marianas” or One Marianas best practices training last week on Saipan.
JKPL Director Erlinda Naputi said, “We had the vision of having an ‘Un Marianas’ library training because, after all, we share the same community members, the people we serve are basically the same, and we share the same culture, and, of course, in the CNMI, we also have the indigenous Carolinian population.”
The training focused on best library practices, she added.
“We shared our best library practices with the team from Guam and we also learned from them as much as they learned from us,” Naputi said.
Guam Public Library System Acting Director Angie Taitague said, “Whatever the CNMI has and whatever we have, we can share it and merge. And because we are all here for serving our Guam and CNMI communities.”
“This is One Marianas, One Library,” said Taitague, who is also the Guam Council on the Arts and Humanities director.
Naputi said JKPL is very fortunate to have a team that is passionate about serving the community.
“Each JKPL staff member exemplifies their service,” she added. “When you’re passionate to serve your community, everything falls into place and that’s how we do it here at the library. That’s what keeps us going. Put your passion into the people you serve and everything falls into place.”
Echoing Naputi’s sentiment, Taitague said, “We’re all here for our community, and in order to do the job, you got to have the passion — you’ve got to be willing to be out there to help... and just love what you do, basically.”
The collaborative best practices training was a kickoff activity for JKPL, leading up to the National Library Week proclamation signing on April 5 at 10 a.m. at the public library.
The Friends of Joeten-Kiyu Public Library have also scheduled a 5K fun run walk on April 12 to raise funds for JKPL’s summer reading program. The entry fee is $10.
For more information, call (670) 235-7322/7318 (READ).
