2026 ALA Medal of Excellence Award Winner

CHICAGO — Amy Mikel, Senior Director of Customer Experience of the Brooklyn Public Library, is the 2026 American Library Association (ALA) Medal of Excellence Award winner. Presented by ALA and sponsored by OCLC, the annual award recognizes creative leadership of high order, particularly in the fields of library management, library training, cataloging and classification, and the tools and techniques of librarianship.

The 2026 Medal of Excellence Jury is excited to honor Amy Mikel for her work to uncover, analyze, and make recommendations for reducing barriers to library card access. As highlighted in “Analyzing Public Library Cardholder Signup to Increase Access,” published in 2025 in the International Journal of Librarianship.

In 2023, BPL undertook a national research project to study the practice of cardholder registration in American public libraries, with findings and analysis published in spring 2024, the first known national dataset collected and shared in this area of practice. The research findings further informed the development of a set of guiding principles developed for public libraries to consider restructuring policy and process in cardholder signup in order to reduce barriers and increase access to their collections and services.

The depth and impact of this project was a significant reason that Amy Mikel received the award. Her nominator highlighted Amy’s responsibility for conceiving of the project, pitching the concept to the Mellon Foundation, writing the final proposal, and ensuring all reporting requirements were met for the funding. She managed the research of U.S. library card practices with Avenue M publishing the results in April 2024.  Amy also convened a group with national representation to create policy recommendations, the results of which were shared in June 2025.  Amy continues to lead ongoing efforts to present and publish to build awareness and share the complete resources which have produced significant outcomes beyond the borders of the Brooklyn Public Library.

Dora Ho, chair of the 2026 Medal of Excellence Award committee, praised her work as it is “instrumental in raising public awareness about intellectual freedom, customer privacy and sharing best practices within the library worker community.”  The Library Card Policy Framework serves as a model and best practices for library card access. It brings together library leaders to build a case for removing barriers to library card registration and enhancing access wherever possible. Amy’s passion drove the group to create an unbiased, transparent and inclusive best practice guide which focuses on advocating for the rights of individuals to think, express themselves, and access information without barriers.

The 2026 Medal of Excellence will be presented at the ALA President’s Program on Sunday, June 28, during the 2026 ALA Annual Conference in Chicago. Members of the 2025 ALA Medal of Excellence Award Jury are: Chair Dora Ho, Retired Young Adult Librarian, Los Angeles Public Library, (CA); Jeffrey Graveline, Associate Dean for Research & Scholarly Communication, University of Alabama at Birmingham (AL), Denise Lyons, Commissioner/State Librarian, Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives (KY),  and Kelsey Robertson, Metadata Librarian, University of Alabama at Birmingham (AL).

Applications for the 2027 ALA Medal of Excellence Award must be submitted by February 28, 2027. Guidelines and forms are available on the ALA website.

About the American Library Association
The American Library Association is the largest non-partisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to America’s libraries. The ALA mission is to empower and advocate for all libraries and library workers to ensure equitable access to information for all. For 150 years, ALA has provided resources for information professionals to transform their communities through essential programs and services. For more information, visit www.ala.org.