Chicago Deskset

The Chicago Deskset is a group of bibliophiles, librarians, archivists, information professionals, friends of libraries and those just crazy enough to support us. Our goal is to create an environment in which collective intelligence can thrive through social events and give something back to our community, supporting charities near and dear to our hearts. We believe that our local focus will make our projects more effective and rewarding for everyone involved. In other words, it’s where social responsibility hits the streets of Chicago, librarian-style.

The Chicago DeskSet was founded on 2/20/2010 to connect Chicagoland librarians by Adam Girard, Leah White and Anthony Molaro who believe that united we can make the profession more successful. We were inspired by The Deskset and owe them a debt-of-gratitude for spear-heading the idea.

Anthony Molaro is the Head of Technical Services and Automation for the Messenger Public Library of North Aurora. Anthony is currently a PhD student at Dominican University’s Graduate School of Library and Information Science where he holds an MLIS.  Anthony is also an adjunct instructor in the Library Technical Assistant program at Waubonsee Community College.   He is also an information activist, and advocates for the removal of barriers between people and information.

Adam Girard is a librarian at the Highland Park Public Library. He has worked in several different libraries in diverse roles from audio preservation assistant to reference librarian. His professional interests include academic librarianship, scholarly communication, open-source technology and international librarianship. When he’s not developing innovative ways to serve his community, you can find him picking a banjo.

Leah L. White is a Reader Services Librarian at the Northbrook Public Library and a 2012 Library Journal Mover and Shaker. She created and managed the Young Librarian Series and spends too much time on her tumblr and twitter. She also tries to write an occasional article. When she isn’t librarianing she enjoys riding her bike on the lake front path, hanging out at Unabridged Bookstore or playing with her tiny dog Shinji.