Meet Adam Benitez, Acquisitions Coordinator
Adam Benitez, who was recently promoted to Acquisitions Coordinator for the library, has worked in the Technical Services department of the library since February 1999. He received his B.A. in Psychology from UCLA, while working at the East Asian Library as a student assistant. After graduating from UCLA, Adam intended to pursue a Master’s Degree in clinical psychology, but after a semester at Cal. State Dominguez, he decided to return to the library world and got a job in the law library as the Mail Assistant. He was soon promoted to Bindery Assistant and then Bindery Supervisor, a position he held for five years.
When Adam first started working here, he was the lead singer in a band, which took up a lot of his time (read more about Adam’s band in his August blog posting). Once the band broke up, he decided it was time to settle down and go back to school. Since Adam always really enjoyed his work in the library and thought it was “a lot of fun,” he decided a career in librarianship was the way to go and is now working on his Master’s in Library and Information Science at UCLA’s GSEIS, which he expects to obtain by next June. He is working full time while getting his degree and finds it exciting that he is able to apply what he learns in school to the work setting. Once Adam graduates, he and his wife hope to start a family.
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Pictured are Adam & his band playing on the Powell steps during the 1999 L.A. Times Festival of Books. |
Not only is Adam applying his education to work, but he found it inspiring his music. Adam has just about finished six songs which feature library-related lyrics. He will soon begin recording them in his home studio and plans to play all of the instruments on the tracks: drums, bass, guitar, keyboard, harmonica and more (as you may have guessed, Adam comes from a very musically talented family). He hopes to market these songs to “every library in the U.S.” Some of these titles may be kind of library “inside jokes,” but here they are:
- Doing the DDC [note: Think Dewey Decimal]—A swing style tune
- Authority Control – “Cow punk”
- Digital Resource – electronica
- ILL from Hell – hard rock
- Livin' in the Library – a ballad. Here are a few lyrics from this tune:
Library, I’m livin’ in the Library
What is life, what is love, what does it all mean?
The reference librarian paused to think
Try BX 293 on the third floor
Browse around and you’re sure to find so much more
If Adam is willing to share, perhaps we’ll feature one of these tunes in an upcoming posting….check back often to find out!