Monique Delatte - Change Agents - 2010 Movers & Shakers

Monique Delatte, La Puente Library, County of Los Angeles Public Library

Grant Leader On the display team at Nordstrom, Monique Delatte's customer service–oriented work contributed to her “pro-customer” point of view. When she switched gears to pursue a library degree, she brought her marketing savvy and customer skills with her.

How lucky the library world is to have her. In addition to her full-time job at La Puente Library, where she is a youth services and reference librarian, she is also adjunct faculty at Rio Hondo College, where she is an instruction and reference librarian, as well as a smart-as-a-whip grant-writer. Since 2008, she has garnered over ten grants for both libraries totaling more than $57,000. Each penny counts: the La Puente community has higher-than-average poverty rates and low education levels, and three-quarters of residents speak a language other than English at home.

At Rio Hondo, where most students receive financial aid, Delatte used a $12,500 Verizon grant to create an online, interactive information literacy tutorial for remedial and entry-level English, social sciences, and speech classes. She combined another $20,000 from Verizon with a $3000 Target grant to create Story Time at Rio Hondo College Library. Working with the Child Development department, Delatte and colleagues created new course offerings and brought kids from the community on campus for storytelling.

At La Puente, one of Delatte's most popular endeavors was a $1000 matching grant she wrote with teenagers who wanted e-gaming equipment—a “learning opportunity for the young adult board members, who would be soon searching for college funding,” says Delatte. Another $500 from YALSA resulted in Teen Tech Week at La Puente. Tapping L.A.'s resources, Delatte collaborated with the Hollywood Entertainment Museum on a program where teens worked with writers and directors to make their own short films (see myspace.com/lapuentelibrary).

While promoting L.A. Public Libraries to her Rio Hondo students—future job-hunters—Delatte also encourages La Puente teens to pursue their academic goals at Rio Hondo. It shouldn't come as a surprise that this summer, Delatte will teach a four-week online course, Growing, Managing, & Defending the Young Adult Budget, for YALSA.

On her lunch breaks, Delatte jogs through the library neighborhood. “One time, I found myself being trailed by library kids on Heelys, bicycles, and Razor scooters. I felt like the Pied Piper of La Puente! Seven-year-old Kassandra, one of a family of ten, skated alongside me and said, 'We feel proud because we know you.'”