Jake Epp Library welcomes new director

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This article was published 22/05/2024 (313 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Jake Epp Library’s new director has many plans for the library, which she hopes will be implemented within three to 10 years.

Hailing from Davao City in the Philippines, Emmalyn Latigay has been a librarian for almost 10 years. She began her career in the Philippines where for four years she worked as a high school librarian and university librarian. As a university librarian she handled the catalogues of a number of colleges including nursing, medical technology, pharmacy, music, and hotel and restaurant management.

After working in the Philippines, she was asked if she would like to work abroad. She replied that she would and to her surprise she was sent to Al Hassa, Saudi Arabia. She worked for the government run oil company Saudi Aramco as a librarian for four years. She said the company was really multicultural and she made a lot of friends with people from all over the world.

“I did enjoy it. It’s fun to talk to a lot (of people). I am a people person and then it’s really fun to talk to and see a variety of people from all over the world.”

After living in Saudi Arabia, Latigay decided she needed more of a challenge. She moved to London, Ont. to study business analysis and to become a personal support worker. She finished the two programs before getting a job again as a librarian.

“I love to help people. People come to the library asking for information for technology help, educating them and then providing the trends of the information industry. Providing services to people is what I like since I was three years old. I played a different role in our church and in our community and every institution I have so that’s where my pathway is to provide service.”

She said she likes to help people who are “information deprived”.

“In the Philippines although we have public libraries it still doesn’t suffice the needs of the community. They don’t have money to buy computers they can just go to the library. Those kinds of things I really appreciate working in the library.”

When she moved to Steinbach at the end of April, Latigay began making plans for the Jake Epp Library. She has developed a three year, five year, and 10 year plan. Some of her plans include digitizing the collection through e-books, regionalizing the library, providing self-checkout, providing educational support on how to use AI, enhance community engagement, and digital workshops to learn software platforms such as Excel.

She’s also been happy with her reception in the community.

“People here are very friendly. They are polite. Some of the people I met and talked to in McDonald’s and like that they are very softspoken and very polite, very nice and friendly. This is a friendly community.”