Kimmel receives ALSC Distinguished Service Award

Contact: Laura Schulte-Cooper


312-280-2165

ALA News Release


For Immediate Release


January 2001

Kimmel receives ALSC Distinguished Service Award

The Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), is proud to announce that Dr. Margaret Mary Kimmel, a past ALSC president, is the 2001 recipient of its Distinguished Service Award.

The award honors an individual ALSC member who has made significant contributions to library service to children and ALSC. The announcement was made at the ALSC Board of Directors meeting during the ALA Midwinter Meeting in Washington, D.C.

Kimmel will receive a monetary award of $1,000 and be honored at the ALSC membership meeting during the 2001 ALA Annual Meeting in San Francisco.

For more than 20 years, Dr. Kimmel has been a major influence in librarianship, particularly in the area of service to children. She has served as a leader in ALA, ALSC, the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) and the Pittsburgh community, impacting countless lives, as a teacher, author and storyteller. Dr. Kimmel is dedicated to family literacy, service to children and families and to the library profession.

Trev Jones, award committee chair, said, "Maggie so fully meets the criteria of the award that she was a natural choice."

Her span of influence and enthusiasm for building and maintaining relationships within the division ranges from service on individual committees to representing ALSC's interests in the global library community.

She expanded ALSC's influence through her work, including her role as a consultant with Family Communications, Inc., (Mr. Roger's Neighborhood) and as the co-author of
For Reading Out Loud.

In her role as a teacher and storyteller, she continues to be an effective recruiter and promoter for ALSC.

Members of the 2001 Distinguished Service Award Committee are: chair, Trev Jones,
School Library Journal, New York; Barbara Genco, Brooklyn (N.Y.) Public Library; Leslie Holt, St. Louis (Mo.) Public Library; Molly Kinney, Office of Public Library Services, Atlanta; and Jeanette Larson, Austin (Texas) Public Library.