EPISODE DESCRIPTION
Rivkah Sass is to me the ideal librarian — imbued with creativity, curiosity, openness, social conscience, as well as an abiding, passionate sense of mission. Rivkah is determined to make the libraries in the Sacramento, CA, library system (the fourth largest in that vast state) the go-to place for reading, for inquiry, for belonging, indeed for human flourishing on sundry scales.
Rivkah, named by the Library Journal their Librarian of the Year in 2006, has been director of the Sacramento Public Library since 2009. Thanks to her, I had the great pleasure of holding a Constitution Cafe there in 2012 — and can’t wait to return this fall to convene a Democracy Cafe.
Rivkah believes libraries play a more vital role than ever in this era of our democracy: “Where we’re going now is we’re really embedding ourselves out in the community and looking externally and saying, ‘What do people need, how can we be more inclusive? How can we help children who don’t have the advantage of going to robotics camp of having the experience of learning to code? What do the communities need and how can we address them?”
To that end, among many other crossover endeavors, her library system has been at the vanguard of implementing California’s Voter’s Choice Act; even though it doesn’t fully take effect until 2020, Sacramento’s libraries already have 10 voter service centers.
The revered and much-honored librarian’s steadfast commitment to libraries and literacy extends far beyond the borders of Sacramento. Already Rivkah been twice to a Syrian refugee camp, and plans to return. “It’s been a remarkable experience,” she shares. “They have libraries and I went to see if there’s anything i can do to help.” To that end, she gave workshops on early childhood literacy, as well as ones with volunteer librarians who are themselves refugees.
Listen in to this inspiring and compelling give-and-take.