Ten librarians named 2015 winners of the I Love My Librarian Award

Library users nominate favorites for prestigious national public service honor

NEW YORK – Ten librarians were honored today with this year’s I Love My Librarian Award for their exceptional public service to the community and ongoing commitment to transforming lives through education and lifelong learning. The winning librarians were selected from a pool of more than 1,300 nominations submitted by library patrons nationwide who use public, school, college, community college or university libraries. The nominations detailed stories about how their favorite librarians helped improve the quality of life in their communities.

The nation’s 166,164 certified librarians continue to play a vital role in assisting and inspiring all who seek information and access to technologies. The I Love My Librarian Award winners are living examples of how library professionals are expanding beyond their traditional functions and providing more opportunities for community engagement and delivering new services that connect closely with patrons’ needs.

“It is gratifying to have the I Love My Librarian Award bring much deserved recognition to librarians. As libraries transform so do librarians to support individual opportunity and community progress,” said Sari Feldman, president of the American Library Association. “Every day librarians connect library users with the books, information and critical technology resources they need to thrive in the digital age.”

The award recipients include:

• a librarian who fought censorship when residents attempted to ban and remove books from the shelves

• a librarian who works with incarcerated youth at a school within a juvenile hall

• a librarian who fostered a deeper understanding of the Muslim world by facilitating a campus exhibit and lecture

• a librarian whose efforts helped raise student reading scores significantly at an underserved elementary school

Each winning librarian will receive a $5,000 prize at an award ceremony and reception to be held tonight in New York City, hosted by the philanthropic foundation Carnegie Corporation of New York, which sponsors the award. The New York Public Library and The New York Times are co-sponsors of the award, which is administered by the American Library Association.

The librarians join an esteemed group of award recipients who are recognized as being catalysts for powerful individual and community change. Only 80 librarians have received the national award since its inception in 2008.

The 2015 I Love My Librarian Award recipients include four academic librarians, three public librarians and three school librarians. The winners are:

Diane Brown
New Haven (Connecticut) Free Public Library, Stetson Branch

Doug Campbell
Willis Library, University of North Texas
Denton, Texas

Sylvia Cieply
Otto A. Fischer School Library, Orange County Juvenile Hall
Orange, California

Dona J. Helmer
College Gate Elementary School Library
Anchorage, Alaska

Courtney P. Kincaid
Formerly with Hood County Library
Granbury, Texas

Leslie D. Koch
Armstrong Elementary School
Eastover, North Carolina

April Roy
Kansas City (Missouri) Public Library, Lucile H. Bluford Branch

Elizabeth G. Rumery
Avery Point Campus Library, University of Connecticut
Groton, Connecticut

Dr. Christopher A. Shaffer
Troy (Alabama) University

Shugana Williams
Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, Perkinston (Mississippi) Campus

For more information regarding the 2015 I Love My Librarian Award recipients, please visit www.ilovelibraries.org/ilovemylibrarian.

About Carnegie Corporation of New York

Carnegie Corporation of New York was established by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 “to promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding.” In keeping with this mandate, the Corporation's work focuses on the issues that Andrew Carnegie considered of paramount importance: international peace, the advancement of education and knowledge, and the strength of our democracy.

About The New York Public Library

The New York Public Library is a free provider of education and information for the people of New York and beyond. With 92 locations—including research and branch libraries—throughout the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island, the Library offers free materials, computer access, classes, exhibitions, programming and more to everyone from toddlers to scholars, and has seen record numbers of attendance and circulation in recent years. The New York Public Library serves more than 18 million patrons who come through its doors annually and millions more around the globe who use its resources at www.nypl.org. To offer this wide array of free programming, The New York Public Library relies on both public and private funding. Learn more about how to support the Library at nypl.org/support.

About the American Library Association

The American Library Association (ALA) is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with 58,000 members in academic, public, school, government, and special libraries. The mission of the American Library Association is to provide leadership for the development, promotion and improvement of library and information services and the profession of librarianship in order to enhance learning and ensure access to information for all.

The ALA administers the I Love My Librarian Award through the ALA’s Public Awareness Office which promotes the value of libraries and librarians.

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Heather Cho
American Library Association
312-280-4020
hcho@ala

Celeste Ford
Carnegie Corporation of New York
212-207-6277
cfc@carnegie.org