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December 29, 2008

Library creates an online career center

Asbury Park Press
By CAROL • GORGA WILLIAMS • COASTAL MONMOUTH BUREAU • December 29, 2008

LONG BRANCH — As the recession begins to take its toll, the city's Free Public Library has found ways to respond: The newest initiative, called the Virtual Career Center, gives people short on computer literacy the opportunity to hone their skills in potentially lucrative ways.

But the Virtual Career Center is more than just a few tutorials on keyboarding or how to work a mouse. The center seeks to provide a link between those who are hiring employees with those who wish to be hired.

The Virtual Career Center is found on the library's Web site and is the product of a year of planning by Tonya Badillo, who works in the Gates Computer Lab.

She is responsible for maintaining the Web site and handles diversity and literacy issues for the library system.

Badillo and Ingrid Bruck, the library director, are championing the new services available through the Virtual Career Center which, they said, serves a vital function, particularly in a community like Long Branch, where not everyone speaks English.

Because many employers require job candidates to file applications online, the programs at the library become critical, officials said.

"We were seeing an influx of people looking for work, and we wanted to respond to that, and we did with the Virtual Career Center," Bruck said "We have seen more and more people coming in looking for a job."

The services the library offers are tailored specifically for the city and surrounding community. Badillo and Bruck hope that, as word gets around, more employers will learn about the center, and it will function as a link between employers and potential employees.

Badillo, who worked in the library's Gates Computer Lab for five years, saw the need for a program that would help direct potential employees as they search for jobs, work on educational needs and learn basic computer skills.

Many potential clients of this career center are community members with limited computer skills who must look for jobs, develop new skills and submit applications, all via the computer.

"It has many, many links," Badillo said of the site. "The first thing we did was design the site to focus on our community." She said she tried to design the site in a way that any inquiry can be answered in three clicks of a computer mouse or less.

The programs also aim to help those who expect to be laid off in the months ahead, as well as students, small-business owners and those who run nonprofit organizations. Tools are available to help assist with college planning and to allow students to practice standardized tests.

Practice Civil Service tests also are available.

This is not like a site such as Monster.com, the library officials said. The jobs are local, culled from sources including Asbury Park Press classifieds. A database of summer jobs is being prepared.

The program already has attracted the attention of other libraries, which are looking at it as a model, officials said. Council President Michael DeStefano said the program was an important one and recommended a link be added to financial aid resources for career advancement and educational programs.

"There is so much great information, it would keep me busy for months," said Badillo, who is constantly adding and updating to the site.

"Unfortunately, I think you are going to be busy over the next 12 to 24 months," Council Member Anthony Giordano said during a recent meeting to unveil the program to city officials.

Local vocational and trade school information also is available, and the site provides resources that help people start a business, determine the tax implications of various courses of action, management tools and free business forms.

An online computer tutorial page is available to help people work on basic and advanced computer skills.

The site offers information tailored for the city's diverse population, including help for the black and Latino populations as well as those recently released from incarceration. Help also is tailored to the needs of senior citizens, teens and the city's disabled residents.

The site offers help for those returning to work after an extended leave, such as public assistance-to-work programs, help for parents who previously stayed home but now are re-entering the job market and for those being released from programs that require them to find employment.

The program also includes resources for those teens looking for after-school work or summer jobs.

"The people are out there," Bruck said. "We see them every day at the library. They are looking for work."

Meanwhile, the library has applied for a Public Library Innovation grant administered by the International City/County Management Association funded through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. If received, the grant will be used for a Back-To-Work Transition Program that will run for 12-to-16 weeks and offer computer training, leadership workshops and job-search assistance for those who register.

While the Virtual Career Center is hosted by the Gates Computer Lab, its services are available anywhere by simply accessing the library's Web site.

"It was finished in August," Badillo said. "Unfortunately, it came out at a perfect time."

Posted by tumulty at December 29, 2008 4:21 PM

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