Thoroughness and detail: Adrian the librarian

Janesville, WI, March 13th, 2018 - At the Hedberg Public Library in Janesville, library goers may have seen a person named Adrian spending time sorting and alphabetizing CDs in the popular music section. He currently volunteers twice a week, Monday and Friday, at an hour a day. Adrian is a part of Aptiv’s Community-Based Day Services program.

But before becoming an official volunteer, Adrian had been coming to Hedberg for many years, assigning himself the project of organizing and sorting the CDs.

Michelle Dennis, head of Access Services with the library, thought it would be a great opportunity to make Adrian a volunteer so he would have a clear, effective plan for him to achieve his task.

“As a volunteer, we can give him tools and direction to benefit the task, the staff, and Adrian,” says Dennis.

While he is alphabetizing the CDs, Adrian checks for broken cases. When he finds one, he places a note inside the CD case and gives it to library personnel so it can be fixed. If the CD only needs minor repairs, Adrian has some tools on his cart to fix it himself. He also notifies library personnel if a CD is missing.

Savvas Mourtzis, Adrian’s outcome specialist, said that Adrian is not only a wizard at alphabetizing CDs, he also places them in chronological order by artist.

“He is very thorough and detailed in his sorting,” said Mourtzis.

The goal for Adrian in the Community-Based Services program is to increase his involvement in the community as well as his potential for community employment. Through his program, he is learning both hard and soft skills, such as arriving on time and how to interact appropriately with other library staff, which are required for a future job.

Denisse Perez, an Aptiv staff member who accompanies Adrian to the library each week, says Adrian will tell her fun facts about artists and music as he works.

“Adrian clearly has a passion for music,” she says. “He is very meticulous. Now that he knows the steps he needs to take for each CD, he rarely has to be reminded what to do with a broken or cracked CD case.”

Adrian said he likes his time at the library, and his favorite part is placing the note in the case to let library staff know the CD is damaged. He looks forward to volunteering at the library twice a week.

“Adrian is very enthusiastic,” Dennis said. “He takes coaching and direction from our staff and learns quickly. He seems very happy to be here.”

In addition to Adrian being happy to be at the library, Dennis is happy to have him.

“He lets us practice with helping a person with a variety of needs and skills, which enhances our customer service experience,” she said. “But most importantly, we really need this task done. It’s a nitpicking, detail-oriented job and Adrian loves to do it. He’s learning soft skills, has a schedule and a task to complete by the end of his shift. We can track his progress and his improvement as he works his way through the music collection.”

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