Nominate Your Favorite Librarian!
As we all know, librarians are superheroes. Sure, there’s the classic Marian the Librarian sort of duties that involve helping people find books, but there’s more! So much more! Librarians are a community resource, and a resource that can especially help those who have been marginalized and underserved.
The I Love My Librarian Award was created to spotlight those librarians who go above and beyond for the communities they serve, whether they be in a public, academic, or school library. Ten librarians are selected from the nominees every year and receive $5,000 cash, a plaque, and a travel stipend to attend the awards ceremony in New York City.
Previous winners include people like Annie Cippola at the Los Angeles Public Library, who hosted a college admissions representative to teach high schoolers how to navigate the college admission process; helps students find volunteer opportunities and internships; and plans programs, workshops and seminars for the community.
There’s also Mary Jo Fayoyin at Savannah State University, who listens to students’ needs and not only made sure the library computers (which are available later in the evening than the computer lab’s) had the same advanced software loaded on them, but created a café area so library patrons have somewhere to eat before evening classes. She noticed students were always asking for paper clips, tape, or to borrow a stapler, and she created a student workstation for finishing up documents. This is aside from the mentorship work she does.
These librarians, and many others like them, are doing this kind of amazing work every day. If you know a librarian you are proud of, nominate them for the I Love My Librarian Award! Nominations are open through October 1, 2018. Librarians deserve a lot of things for the work they do. Here’s a way to show them you know it.
