Young Adult Librarian Ziba Perez participated in the annual 4th of July parade.
Ziba Perez, Palisades Young Adult Librarian, has received a promotion and her last day at the Palisades Library was Wednesday, October 16. Just shy of two years at this location, Perez will next work as a Young Adult Librarian III at the Van Nuys branch.
Perez started the circulating zine section at the library (lapl.org/zines) and also the Zine Club. Pronounced like magazine—without the mag—zines are self-published, independently made, usually photocopied, and have a small print run.
During the club time, members, under Perez, chatted and shared inspiration for projects. They discussed zines they were working on, and zines they like. Zine content can be personal, political, niche, artistic, visual—there are no rules.
Perez said, thanks goes to “branch manager Mary [Hopf] who has always been very positive and open to new ideas, I appreciate Mary so much and will miss her greatly.”
Once she is “settled in” at the Van Nuys library, she hopes to start a similar Zine program.
One downside among many leaving this library is, “the commute will be longer for me as I live in this area and do not plan to relocate.” In an earlier story, Perez said that she loved the hiking opportunities at Will Rogers and Temescal Canyon and that she had just learned to surf.
She said she felt one of her greatest accomplishments in the Palisades was upgrading the team area. She credited Palisades Library Association (PPLA) member Sandy Eddy, for helping her.
“It became a more welcoming environment for teens, and I saw the teen area of the library bloom from no teens to full of teens every day after school,” Perez said.
“I worked with Ziba for nearly two years on refurbishing the Teen Area,” Eddy said. “During that time, I observed her in action as she juggled a variety of projects – from overseeing Palisades Teen Council, to establishing relationships with many local organizations, to creating a Zine collection for our branch… not to mention her involvement in many other activities, too many to mention! We will miss the energy and enthusiasm that Ziba brought to our branch.”
When Perez was in elementary school, she would walk with her best friend to the Los Altos Neighborhood Library, before going home to meet her parents, who were returning from work. Her Iranian father was a mechanical engineer at Boeing and her Mexican mother worked as a chemical engineer for the Los Angeles County Fire Department Hazmat Division.
Perez did not initially plan on a library career. She attended UC Irvine, majoring in biological science, receiving her degree in 2005, with plans to go to medical school. Plans changed, and Perez said, “I decided to be a librarian after a few years working full time as an academic library assistant at UC Irvine Libraries.”
She attended the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and received her master’s degree in library and information science. After graduation, Perez interned at the American Film Institute’s Louis Be Mayer Library Special Collections.
Her first position was with the OC Public Libraries in California at the Costa Mesa Donald Dungan Branch as the Bilingual Adult Librarian in 2013.
Perez said the Teen Council will continue under Hopf until they find her replacement.
Ziba Perez has been promoted and relocated to a new library.