Alan Zak, the previous campus supervisor, has been hired as the new librarian at Calabasas High School, replacing former librarian Stacy Alperson, who officially retired after December 21st. Zak began his librarian duties this past Monday.
Zak taught math for two years before teaching at Lupin Elementary, afterwards coming to Calabasas at the end of the 2022-2023 school year, where he started his work as a campus supervisor.
“When I was a campus supervisor, I was assigned to Stacy to cover her breaks. Then, for her own reasons, she decided to retire at the end of last year, and then they posted the job,” said Zak. “I didn’t think they would pick me, they had a lot of people, and I’m very grateful to be here.”
Although Zak may have thought they wouldn’t pick him, he’s grateful for the opportunity as most of his family also happen to work at libraries, providing him with a strong sense of how to operate in this field.
“My wife works at the county library in the brand new Topanga facility and I have twin daughters that are librarians and so sometimes I get to be involved with their programs over there with the kids,” says Zak.
Already, Zak has a lot of plans for the future of the library.
“I want to make the library very accessible to the kids. Perhaps we could do learning centers and things of that nature and evolve into what’s sometimes called a makerspace,” said Zak.
This makerspace that Zak speaks of is a facility that utilizes the back rooms of the library. He believes that there is more we can do with what we already have.
“At my daughter’s library downtown, their makerspace; you can go in there and you can do 3D printing, you can do audio editing, you can do all these things in the library. That’s a big step, but in addition to providing the support we do now, we can provide makerspace services,” Zak says.
Zak has experience with all types of kids and can readily assist anyone who walks through the library doors.
“[At my previous job] I was with the autistic program, the so-called moderate to severe classification. But my background is really engineering,” says Zak.
With a long background of teaching children, unique life experiences, and hopes for the future of Calabasas, Alan Zak is excited to be the new librarian.
