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Baasil Wilder provides guidance and access to information resources, both inside the library and beyond the library, through databases, telecommunications networks and cooperative arrangements. He is currently assigned as the Branch Librarian of the National Postal Museum.
Baasil is the third librarian in the history of the National Postal Museum, which opened in 1993. He is also the Branch Librarian of the Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum. Baasil is the fifth librarian in the history of the Anacostia Community Museum, whose collection was organized as part of the Smithsonian Institution Libraries in 1991. In both of these assignments, Baasil routinely provides timely, accurate and comprehensive reference services to satisfy internal and external users' needs.
Baasil was recruited for this position by accepting a paraprofessional job offer as a cataloger in 2010. Once he got his “foot in the door,” he was given increasing responsibilities and assigned difficult tasks as a professional librarian. At first, he worked as a roving reference librarian, traveling to a different library in Washington, DC each day of the week. Next, he served as Branch Librarian of the National Museum of the American Indian library (NMAI). This national library consists of four separate locations: NMAI-Mall in DC, NMAI-CRC in Maryland, NMAI-GGHC in New York and NMAICON—also in Maryland.
"SILS provided me with the attributes essential to professional growth as a librarian," said Baasil. "I was taught by the best, and I am extremely thankful. I am especially grateful for the mentorship and encouragement of Professors David Carr, Evelyn Daniel, Brian Sturm, Robert Losee, Jane Greenberg, Gary Marchionini and Diane Kelly. They each inspired me to excel and always try my best in library science. What I found most valuable about SILS is that the curriculum promotes a true devotion to information and library science, not just as a job, but as a lifestyle. SILS shows us how vital information professionals are to modern society and this makes me proud to be a librarian.”
