Kim Bui-Burton

Kim Bui-Burton’s career in libraries started in 1975, when she was a high-school student and landed her first job shelving books at the Monterey Public Library. She grew up getting library books regularly as a child, and remembers researching what kind of dog to adopt in the Seaside Public Library. (She ended up with a mutt who she says resembled Ribsy, a Beverly Cleary character.)

Her first job as a librarian was as the branch manager of the Monterey County Free Library in Greenfield – particularly busy in the summers, because “it was the only air-conditioned place in town.” That’s where Bui-Burton says she came to appreciate the role of the library as more than a place to learn information, but also as a community gathering space and a friendly, accessible space for the public to interact with local government. From there, her career in libraries and local government evolved. When she became director of the Monterey Public Library in 2004, she says she was the nation’s first Vietnamese-American librarian (based on research conducted at libraries, naturally).

Bui-Burton, 59, retired in December after 10 years as library director, followed by four years as Monterey’s community services director, where she oversaw the development of the new conference center. She’s also a published poet who hopes to do more writing in retirement, and talked to the Weekly about libraries and her heritage in advance of the Vietnamese New Year, which begins Feb. 16.

Weekly: In the years you’ve been in libraries, a huge digital transformation has happened. Was that earth-shaking for you?

Bui-Burton: It was and it wasn’t. Libraries have always been about information, whether the information is in books, or oral histories.

We would hear from the public, “With the internet, no one’s going to come to the library, they’ll get information online.” But libraries were part of equalizing that playing field. Increasingly, the more information there is on the internet, the harder it can be to figure out what is accurate and what is useful; it’s still a really important role librarians play.

What about the space libraries occupy beyond being a place to get books or information?

So much of what a library is now is a community gathering space. Increasingly, I think it’s easy for people to get isolated in their homes online. It’s always been true of libraries that everyone is welcome: You don’t have to look a certain way, dress a certain way or have a certain educational background.

Do you speak Vietnamese?

No. My father taught Vietnamese at the Defense Language Institute. He used to say, he spent his days teaching Vietnamese to Americans. He didn’t really want to do it at night at home. That’s also what happens with a lot of first-generation immigrants, they want their children to be Americanized.

Have you been back to Vietnam since leaving at age 2?

I have not. My father thought when he retired he might go back to live there. But when he visited, he thought it had become a different country. He saw elderly people begging on the street. In the culture where he grew up, you took care of your elders.

How do you celebrate the Vietnamese New Year?

It’s seven days. It’s a time you clean the house, get new clothes, get together with your family, make amends and settle your debts. It’s a celebration. Red and yellow are auspicious colors. In Vietnam, towns and banks shut down.

You just attended the conference center grand opening on Jan. 31. How did it feel?

I’ve never been a part of something like that before, from being imagined to seeing walls and windows. To my mind, if the conference center was successful and city revenues went up, that means the library will be successful – and that means the community is successful.

One of the things that drew me to [the community services director job] was to help make the economy strong, which helps keep libraries and other city functions going.

Do you have an all-time favorite book?

Mary Oliver is my favorite poet. A book of her collected poems I go to a lot.

Ursula Le Guin’s Earthsea trilogy is one of my favorite series. In contrast to something like the Tolkien series, there are strong women characters. And the books are about the balance of life, rather than good versus evil, and I think that really spoke to me.