Author Archives: Ava Wallace

Building Community with iSchool Alum Tina Lerno

A headshot of Tina Lerno

Tina Lerno, SJSU MLIS Class of 2012, Los Angeles, CA

“Students may be saying ‘What am I doing? Is AI just going to take over the library world?’ and I, of course, say no.” 

Tina Lerno, recently named the California Library Association’s (CLA) 2025 Member of the Year, is a community-builder and champion for librarians.

A graduate of the San José State MLIS program, Ms. Lerno has been a Librarian for the Los Angeles Public Library for nearly 10 years. She works on the digital content team to maintain the library website, enhance site functionality and create compelling outreach materials to connect with the community and encourage library patronage. Having previously worked in animation, she draws on her artistic background to design engaging online content for everything from special library events, service announcements and community initiatives such as cultural heritage months and library advocacy. 

Ms. Lerno likewise contributes her design skills to CLA, where she has designed the annual conference t-shirt and other celebratory swag. This bridge between her professional lives speaks to the power of her work with CLA, which she first joined in search of community and guidance as she navigated a significant career change and sought to find her footing in the LIS field. Because of her involvement in CLA, she says she “never felt that alone” in SJSU’s remote learning environment.

CLA connected Ms. Lerno with inspirational mentors, facilitated professional connections and gave her opportunities to foster community spaces that she was not seeing elsewhere. She has been a leading figure in building thriving CLA interest groups, helped develop the CLA conference 5-Minute Mentoring sessions, and has been a vital member of the organization’s Membership Committee. 

Tina Lerno holds a large sign for the CLA Membership Committee

Tina Lerno has been a vital presence on the CLA Membership Committee.

Mentorship, Leadership and the Human Side of Librarianship

Lerno’s commitment to mentoring early-career librarians extends to her work at LAPL, where she works with the Take the Lead program to support library staff training, skill-building, and leadership development.

At first, Ms. Lerno says she was not confident that she had the experience or qualifications to offer guidance. But she realized that being a good mentor was not about having a specific credential or accolade, but rather about facilitating connections: “You just have to know a little bit more than they do, and then say ‘here, let me introduce you…’ or ‘let me take you this way and show you…”

She finds inspiration in her own mentors, who “made me feel like the library, the library world and the library school is a welcome place.” Ultimately, she says, “I just want other people to have that experience too.”

Due to her deep involvement with the LIS community, particularly her focus on working with current students and early-career professionals, Lerno is attuned to the anxieties and concerns prevalent throughout the field. “Students may be saying ‘What am I doing? Is AI just going to take over the library world?’ and I, of course, say no.” 

She encourages her mentees and colleagues to “turn off that chatter” because “libraries are more than just collecting information. We’re doing outreach. We’re servicing people at risk in various parts of their lives, from, you know, story time to lunch at the library. All those things, you need people for.” At the end of the day, she says,”You still need the human.”

The Road to Professional Self-Discovery with Jenny Tak

Jenny standing and smiling in front of a grey wall.

Jenny Tak, MLIS expected 2026, Irvine, CA

Lean into what you are and win. 

When second-semester MLIS student Jenny Tak first saw the message about Roadtrip Nation in the San José State University MLIS listserv, she was intrigued, but not immediately motivated to apply. The opportunity—a three-week cross-country trip interviewing library leaders—was unlike anything she had ever considered. 

Born in Korea and raised in Sacramento after immigrating to the U.S. in 2005, Jenny graduated with a B.A. from Soka University of America in 2024 and began the SJSU MLIS program in 2025. But, she says, the first semester was difficult – she sometimes felt alone, overwhelmed and unsure of her future in the LIS field. It was precisely because of this uncertainty that she decided on a whim to apply for the Roadtrip Nation opportunity. 

Now, Jenny has just returned from her month-long library tour, during which she and several other MLIS students traveled from Los Angeles to Chicago interviewing library professionals and touring libraries and archives across the country. The journey will be documented in an episode of Roadtrip Nation to be aired on PBS in 2026.

All experiences can be valuable if you allow them to be.

Following her experience with Roadtrip Nation, she feels more inspired, optimistic and motivated about her professional future. Through meeting professionals who shared their own nonlinear paths, Jenny began to see that “all experiences can be valuable if you allow them to be.” Interviews with figures such as ALA President Sam Helmick and librarian-influencer Mychal Threets instilled meaningful wisdom and advice, and she began to see librarianship more expansively, as “a practice, and a process.” 

One stop on the trip—the Busy Beaver Button Museum in Chicago, IL—proved especially eye-opening. For example, she notes:   

I’m a huge sticker collector, I love crafting, I love journaling—that’s my passion.

But, she was never sure how, or even whether, she could unite that love with her career in librarianship. Visiting the Button Museum and meeting the archivists there was “proof, and an actual example, of how my interests can intersect,” she says. 

At one stop on the trip, Jenny was given a Sharpie and told to leave a message for future visitors on board the Roadtrip Nation bus. “Lean into who you are and win,” she wrote, a message for other MLIS students and young professionals uncertain about their path.

Her insights and experiences are shaping how she approaches both her studies and her future in librarianship. She’s less afraid to put herself out there, and more interested in pursuing internships and learning experiences outside of her classes. During the trip, she and her fellow travelers attended the Association of Small and Rural Libraries conference – an opportunity that made her excited, rather than intimidated, to participate in other LIS conferences.

Ultimately, Jenny sees her path leading toward public librarianship and library advocacy, and she hopes to find avenues for combining that work with her passions for crafting and collecting. She sees herself:

Being able to live truly as myself, while also still having a very strong foundation within the library.