YALSA honors Kellie Tilton with Volunteer of the Year Award

CHICAGO — The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), awarded Kellie Tilton, administrative assistant of the Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers committee, with the Volunteer of the Year Award. The award acknowledges the contributions of YALSA members who have demonstrated outstanding service to the mission, goals and work of YALSA during a given service year.

“Kellie is the type of person that goes above and beyond what she is asked for. Always quick with a smart insight or an amazing Excel sheet, she is there to help someone get to a better solution,” says Derek Ivie, chair, 2014 Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers committee. “She is always thinking ahead and making tasks easier for everyone else even if it means more work for her. On top of all of her hard work and dedication, Kellie is just an awesome person! Funny, nice and super approachable she is everything I could have wanted and more in an assistant, YALSA member and new friend.”

The Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers list identifies titles aimed at encouraging reading among teens who dislike to read for whatever reason and includes both fiction and nonfiction titles. As administrative assistant, Tilton updated the committee weekly with new nominations and publisher news. She also kept an up-to-date spreadsheet tracking all books received and read by members.

As noted by the eight nominations she received, Tilton continued to go above and beyond by making suggestions to the staff liaison on creating resources for future committee members’ use. Tilton was able to keep members extremely organized and motivated all while moving across the country from Alaska and beginning a new position as instructional technologies librarian at the University of Cincinnati Blue Ash. She has also served on the Midwinter Paper Presentation Planning committee.

“She has supported all of us with wonderful skill and an incredible attitude which deserves to be recognized,” said Jennifer Fairchild, chair, 2015 Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers committee.

Any official YALSA group or individual appointed to an official YALSA group is eligible for consideration for contributions to YALSA during the current calendar year. All volunteer of the year award nomination forms are due to Letitia Smith at lsmith@ala.org no later than Dec. 1, 2014. For more information or to download the nomination form, visit the Awards and Grants section of the YALSA website.

For more than 50 years, YALSA has worked to build the capacity of libraries and librarians to engage, serve and empower teens. For more information about YALSA or to access national guidelines and other resources go to www.ala.org/yalsa, or contact the YALSA office by phone, (800) 545-2433, ext. 4390, or e-mail: yalsa@ala.org.