FEATURE ARTICLE
January 2004

Two Receive Education and Community Career Center Award for Excellence
By Linda Hax

CCDA awarded two organizations the Education and Community Career Center Award for Excellence for 2003: California State University, Sacramento (CSUS) Career Center; and the Fresno County Library Career Center.

Over the last four years, CSUS’ Career Center has transformed its career development program from a reactive to a proactive program resulting in a 300-percent increase in student usage. In order to serve more students in a timely manner, the Career Center collaborated with the Counselor Education department and set up a field study site for graduate career counseling students called Career Tracks Graduate Internship Program. Under the supervision of a career counselor, interns serve walk-in students and advance to taking individual appointments. The Career Track training modules include intake, diagnostic, intervention, action planning and closure, conducting workshops, research and program management. The Career Center developed an interactive tour of the Center for Freshman Seminar classes.

The CSUS Career Center shelves books and videotapes by Holland Typology, they also categorize job postings by RIASEC so students see the direct connection between self-exploration and currently available jobs. Marilyn Albert, Director of the CSUS Career Center, accepted the award.

Fresno County Library Career Center is the first library to receive the CCDA Education and Community Career Center Award for Excellence. While all libraries have a few career-related books, and some libraries have enough career books to have a section or corner devoted to career topics, the Fresno County is the first public library in the state we know of to have a librarian devoted to career resources. The Fresno County Career Library’s long-range goal is to provide all county residents with the information they need to make career choices, obtain employment, and operate businesses. In addition to a collection of over 800 career-related books that circulate, the center offers classes on online job searching, basic job searching, resume writing, and interviewing. Bernice Kao, Job Career Librarian, has trained 75 other library staff from rural areas of the county in basic job-search skills to assist their patrons with appropriate resources. In accepting the award on behalf of Fresno County, Kao stated her own interest in career resources began when she was laid off from a corporate library position.