Aaron Carlin Email and Phone Number

With an entrepreneurial spirit and a servant leader mindset, I guide people in how to work together better, both internally for enhanced staff experiences and externally for friendlier staff/customer experiences. I've successfully supervised our four Branch Managers along with their locations and played a chief role in creating and launching our outreach intended Mobile Library vehicle service to traverse every portion of our city. I was a chief actor in creating a new loanable Chromebook and Wi-Fi Hot Spot service that saw implementation of 600 new devices to our population as well as the training and procedure creation that has led to a very successful rollout. I continue to seek new ways to innovate and provide friendly and fun experiences to all those around me.

As Director of the Library at Flossmoor, IL I oversaw a wonderful staff of 34 employees. Situated at the north end of the beautiful downtown village of Flossmoor, IL. The 38,000 sq ft library building itself is a nice hallmark in an already charming downtown area. The majority of projects I undertook as Executive Director were in line with modernizing services, community involvement, and transitioning the library towards a more youth friendly environment. Projects ranged from space planning to behavior studying and enhancement of our collections and Maker spaces.

As manager, I oversaw a newer library branch that made library services more accessible to the western portion of the library district. My main task involved leading my team by example to provide outwardly friendly customer service to our patrons as we grew into this newer frontier. I conducted all scheduling and payroll verification for my team before submitting it to our HR department. Additional responsibilities involved budgeting, strategic planning, and facilities coordination with the Dundee Township Park District.Being our own separate location, it fell to me to create/perform and delegate to my in-house programmers, the planning and implementation of our programming which was offered to all age ranges. Often I communicated with programmers from our Main Library to duplicate programming at my location as well. I participated in special projects such as our staff charity campaign and by coordinating with the Assistant Director to complete portions of the annual Per Capita Grant application. I selected all of the children's books for my location. Situated inside a larger Park District building, I constantly communicated with my staff and staff at our Main Library to maintain good relations between our two organizations. It fell to me to ensure any repairs or adjustments to our facilities were taken care of in a timely manner.

During my time as a Library Associate, I predominantly worked at our Douglass Branch location. As a library that houses works primarily by or about African American authors and media, I was able to engage in relationships of great diversity with our patrons. For nearly seven years I provided exceptional customer service, created top notch Maker/STEM programming, and ordered materials appropriate for the collection. During that time I was passionate about providing programming that would eventually come to be known widely as Maker/STEAM type programming for youth. Fundraising and development of the Juneteenth Emancipation Day Celebration each year fell to me and I secured grants from the Neighborhood Services department of the City of Champaign each year for the historic event. Also relating to fundraising, I was heavily involved with various coworkers in the library's United Way - Combined Charities Campaign which successfully motivated donors to give to the charity of their choice.Immediately following my work at the Douglass Branch, I spent a year working at our Main Library location in the Children's Department. I continued to work with patrons at our desk, perform engaging programming, and took on the heavier duty of Volunteer Coordinator for that department. Prior to my advancement to Library Associate at the Douglass Branch, I performed the duties of Security Officer and then Library Clerk in the Circulation department.