Craig
Cruz is originally from Honolulu but has spent most of his life in California,
growing up near Ontario. He attended university in Irvine
where he received his bachelor's in (yes) English. After school, he moved to
San Francisco and has lived there ever since. In 2006, he graduated from the
School of Library and Information Sciences at San Jose State University.
He and his partner Richard just celebrated 17 years together. His partner works as a computer researcher at a tech company in Silicon Valley and they share a house in San Francisco's St. Mary's Park neighborhood. Unfortunately, they don't have pets because Craig is very allergic to cats, dogs, and birds, but he’s been racking his brain (scheming) on how to share a living space with a cat.
He is currently Library Manager at Krames, a patient education publisher. The library supports the writers, artists, and designers who produce the content for their products, so the collection contains everything from clinical journals and textbooks to diet books and consumer health ("Popular Works"). Craig is responsible for collection development, serials management, maintaining the Web site and OPAC, and research. He likes that his job requires a little bit of everything. He’s never bored as a typical week will include cataloging, ordering, answering reference questions, communications with vendors, and updating the Web site.
What was your first library job? How has the profession changed since you started your career?
My very first library job was as an undergrad at UC Irvine. My tasks included the usual student worker duties like shelving, shelf reading, answering the phones for the reference department librarians, and filing. Oh, and filing pocket parts! How I hated those. But I really enjoyed that job, and the librarians took notice. When an Information Desk position opened, they offered to train me for it. For the first time, I helped patrons directly, assisting them in using the online catalog (this was in 1991) and answered simple reference questions, directing patrons with more complicated needs on to the reference department.
In some ways, I don't think that the profession has changed since I started my career. My career properly started only in 2002. Colleagues talk about deeper specialization, and I've seen some of that. More recently, though, I've seen librarians needing to juggle more than before with the incredible number of layoffs due to the recession. I know several librarians that have had to take on tasks that had been done by entry-level staff, staff that have been laid-off. So now they juggle cataloging with database license negotiation. Is that terribly new? Maybe not, but as someone who's recently had to start working with vendors, I can tell you that it is a new challenge to me.
How long have you been a member of SLA? How long have you been a member of the GLBT issues Caucus? What ways have you been involved in SLA and the caucus?
I've been an SLA member for 6 years, and joined the GLBTIC right away. At the local chapter level, in the past year, I've helped to plan a couple of meetings, finding venues for events and working with restaurant event planners. I also functioned as "deputy" to the local Hospitality chair, which basically meant that I checked people in at meetings, handed out name tags, and set up chairs. Grunt work, but oh so necessary for successful events. I haven't been very active yet in GLBTIC because of volunteer work with another local library organization, but my work there is winding down. My plan is to become more active after a little downtime.
What has SLA meant to you/how has it helped in your career?
I love being a part of SLA and find it to be the most supportive and useful association of the 5 library associations of which I'm a member. The classes at conference -- both the pre-conference workshops and the free presentations -- are the most consistently interesting and applicable to what I do. The people I've met have been genuinely helpful in finding ways for me to participate in the organization, and have also been available -- and more importantly, willing -- to mentor me when I needed assistance.
What do you consider the biggest issues facing librarians/libraries today, and if applicable, their impact on GLBT communities?
What
a huge question. I can't think of any way to answer this question without
venturing into controversy. But as anyone who knows me will tell you, I
often don't let that stop me from weighing in on a topic. Among the major
issues facing librarians today are copyright and the redefinition of
“library” and “librarian.” I know these issues are not new, by any means,
but they remain important developments. A decision on the Google
settlement will be due this autumn, which could ensure a more heated
contest over “fair use” and access for quite some time. The idea that
fair-use access can be denied by a single commercial entity is scary. I
don’t know which way this will go, but I do foresee a continued fight by
librarians and rights-holders if the Google settlement is approved.
As for the definitions of libraries and librarians, maybe special library practitioners have been dealing with the increasing fluidity of these words longer than our academic and public library colleagues, but I still see resistance to change. A place where information and knowledge is stored in books and printed materials might obviously be called a library. For us, a library can encompass so much more. But what about our “stakeholders,” what do they imagine when they hear about their libraries? And is the image conjured by that word something that they want to continue funding? Surveys show that no, many of them don’t want to continue funding their libraries. But they do see the need for a research department, an information center, a resource center, etc., and they’re willing to put their money into supplying that need. For me, the solution seems to be, “Well, let’s make sure our title matches what the funders see as fulfilling their needs.” We're already providing the services they need. Why not sync our terminology? Look, I didn’t grow up dreaming of being an information professional or a resource manager. I wanted to be a librarian. But I’m willing to accept that as libraries’ functions have evolved – as they have encompassed more – so too might my title have to evolve.
What do you consider the biggest issues facing the GLBT community today (challenges and/or victories)?
Ah, more landmines. Well, no one ever said life would be easy. At least, I never received that message. I think the biggest challenge for the GLBT community right now is equality: equality in marriage, in salaries, in acceptance from without and from within our community. Right now, maybe the most public of these challenges is over same-sex marriage. I know a lot of couples here in California married their life partners during the short window of time when it was legal to do so, after wanting to do for decades. Some couples I know didn’t marry because they have sought to conduct their lives outside of the hetero-paradigms. I think we need to respect both points of view, and the viewpoints in-between. I guess, in terms of equality, my over-riding concern would be self-determination.
Any other interesting facts you’d like to share about yourself?
An easy one. I’ve become more and more interested in classical music, including opera and modern concert music, over the last few years. I recently started learning to play the violin, too, although I’m mostly a fan. Of course, as a librarian (yes! My own internal reference uses this term), I’m digging I’m always willing to giving new operas a chance – even Philip Glass – no matter the period or the language, and I’m always looking for people to accompany me to the opera house. If you’re visiting my town and want to hit up an opera, let me know. If I’m visiting your town, one of the first things I’ll do is see if any opera or classical music concert will beperformed during my time there.
