Zuckerman named recipient of ALSC’s 2025 Distinguished Service Award

CHICAGO - Judy Zuckerman is the 2025 recipient of the Association for Library Service to Children’s (ALSC) Distinguished Service Award. This prestigious award honors an individual who has made significant contributions to library service to children and to ALSC.

With a career that spans over four decades, Judy Zuckerman is a children’s librarian manager, family literacy expert, and mentor to current and future librarians.

Over the years, Zuckerman’s accomplishments expanded services and knowledge for library staff, publishers, and families, including in the late 1990s creating a program to train junior editors from children’s publishing to staff library reference desks on the weekends to combine children’s literature expertise with great customer service. In 2005, while working at the Brooklyn Public Library in New York, she helped launch the John Cotton Dana Award winning early literacy campaign, Brooklyn Reads to Babies.

Her service with ALSC is also extensive, from serving on the ALSC Board, to award committees like the Newbery, Caldecott, and Geisel, as well as numerous process committees.

Noted in one of the letters of recommendation for Zuckerman, “She has shaped the careers and lives of countless librarians like me through both the supportive atmosphere and commitment to continuous professional development she has created in the Youth Services Department.”

ALSC is pleased to honor Judy Zuckerman with the 2025 Distinguished Service Award.

The 2025 ALSC Professional Recognition and Scholarships Committee includes: Mary Schreiber, Co-Chair, Cuyahoga County Public Library, Brooklyn, OH; Gwen Vanderhage, Co-Chair, Brodart Company, Williamsport, PA; Heather Love Beverly, Cook Memorial Public Library District, Vernon Hills, IL; Grace Enriquez, Lesley University, Boston, MA; Bethni King, Georgetown Public Library, Georgetown, TX; Maria Xochitl Peterson, Chicago, IL; Rebecca Price-Donahue, Cuyahoga County Public Library, Parma, OH; Jenny Rosenoff, Montclair Kimberley Academy, Montclair, NJ.

About the Association for Library Service to Children

ALSC, a division of the ALA, is the world’s largest organization dedicated to the support and enhancement of library service to children. With a network of more than 4,000 children’s and youth librarians, literature experts, publishers and educational faculty, ALSC is committed to creating a better future for children through libraries. To learn more about ALSC, visit ALSC’s website at www.ala.org/alsc.