Caroline Ward named Grolier Award winner

Contact: Cheryl Malden


Program Officer


312-280-3247
For Immediate Release


March 10, 2005

Caroline Ward named Grolier Award winner

CHICAGO - The American Library Association (ALA) is pleased to announce that Caroline Ward is the recipient of the 51st annual Grolier Foundation Award. This award consists of $1,000 and a citation, donated by Scholastic Library Publishing, and is presented to a librarian whose unusual contribution to the stimulation and guidance of reading by children and young people exemplifies outstanding achievement in the profession.

Caroline Ward has devoted her entire career of 36 years to library services for children and young adults. A tireless advocate, she has never faltered in her primary goal of bringing children and books together in the most creative ways. She continues to be an inspiring and invigorating force in promoting the understanding, use and enjoyment of children’s literature.

In key positions as Children’s Services Consultant for the state of Vermont for 13 years, Children’s Services Manager for the Nassau County Library System (serving 54 member libraries) for 11 years, and her current position as Coordinator of Youth Services at the Ferguson Library in Stamford, Conn., Ward has:

  • Nurtured library services to children in a small, rural state with 90 percent of the public librarians having no professional training

  • Pioneered statewide, thematic summer reading programs in New York and Vermont

  • Managed the Vermont Children’s Book Exhibit Center

  • Initiated in-service educational programs

  • Established an annual children’s literature conference on Long Island

  • As adjunct faculty, taught a variety of children’s literature courses over 20 years for St. Michael’s College, Palmer School of Library and Information Science and Pratt Institute

  • Provided association leadership as president of the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the ALA, and served on the boards of ALSC and United States Board on Books for Young People (USBBY)

  • Chaired and served on numerous award and book evaluation committees, including the Newbery Committee, New York Library Association (NYLA) Empire State Award, Bologna Book Faire Ragazzi Prize, National Book Award and Boston Globe/Horn Book Award

  • Written extensively on public library services for children and children’s literature

  • Initiated and served as project director for multiple grants, from “Baby Time,” a program for pre-walking babies, to “No Child Left Out,” offering services for children with special needs, to “T-MAD,” a teen services advisory board.

“Caroline’s many achievements are impressive by themselves, but it is her vibrant personality, her infectious enthusiasm and boundless passion for her profession that exemplify the spirit, intent and focus of the Grolier Award,” said Grolier Award Committee Chair Julie Cummins. “Manager—leader—mentor—maven, Caroline Ward is a dynamic children’s librarian who is the embodiment of the criteria for the Grolier Award.”

Ward holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Caldwell College and a master’s in library science from Drexel University.

The Grolier Foundation Award will be presented Tuesday, June 28, during the ALA Annual Conference in Chicago.