Three Media Specialists, One YA Librarian Win ‘I Love My Librarian Award'
RSSBy SLJ Staff -- School Library Journal, 12/04/2009
Three media specialists and one YA librarian are among 10 winners of the 2009 Carnegie Corporation of New York/New York Times I Love My Librarian Award, which gives the public a chance to nominate a public, school, college, community college, or university librarian who has made a difference in their lives.
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From left, Lucy Hansen, Carolyn Wheeler, Dana Thomas, Laura Grunwerg. |
One of Wheeler’s nominators wrote that she “sends special buckets filled with appealing books to preschool and lower elementary classes and is always in tune with the topics they are studying”
Wheeler added that she recently opened a Chinese fortune cookie that read “Good things are being said about you." And her horoscope said, "Set aside your problem-solving and have fun. Money will be coming your way in five weeks.” Each of the 10 winners receives a $5,000 cash award, a plaque, and a $500 travel stipend to attend the ceremony and reception at The Times Center in New York.
Dana Thomas, a media specialist at Cypress Lake Middle School in Fort Myers, FL, who was described as “the backbone of cross-curriculum projects” by one of her nominators, plans to share her winnings with her school library. Thomas, whose school serves 750 students in grades six through eight, was recently told that only 25 cents remains in her library budget. “This award isn’t about me,” she told SLJ.
A former student of winner Lucy Hansen, the lead librarian at South Texas Independent School District Biblioteca Las Américas in Mercedes, TX, nominated her, saying that "Lucy is a visionary. She wants Biblioteca Las Americas to be a place that is academically stimulating for every student.”
Hansen says her school district serves Cameron, Willacy, and Hidalgo counties, the three poorest counties in the United States. “I am lucky because my district let’s us be creative, and they figure out how to pay for it,” says Hansen, who planned to “see it all” during her first visit to the Big Apple. Her library program also received the 2006 National School Library Media Program of the Year award from the American Association of School Librarians.
One of the people who nominated winner Laura Grunwerg, director of youth and young adult services at the River Edge Public Library in River Edge, NJ, says “She brings dynamic programs to the library, including lectures, musical performances, art exhibitions and so much more. She is a valuable gem and enormous asset to the library and community of River Edge.”
Grunwerg delighted everyone with her comedic acceptance speech, telling the audience about her humorous interactions with patrons, including the time someone said she looked like actress Greer Garson and another incident in which she helped a Russian immigrant write love letters.
Vartan Gregorian, president of Carnegie Corporation of New York, told the audience that in a world that’s oversaturated with disconnected information, more people increasingly look to librarians as our guides to the truth.
“They are the guardians of history and the true keepers of the flame of knowledge,” he says. “Our lives are enriched by their contributions and our great, diverse democracy is strengthened by their dedication and their expertise. We thank them and we celebrate them today, and always.”
The award, which received 3,190 nominations this year, is jointly sponsored by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, The New York Times, and the American Library Association. There were 1,571 nominations in the school library category, 1,148 for public librarians, and 472 for academic librarians. This year marks the second year that school librarians were included as a category. Some 1,608 people were nominated this year, up from 1,400 last year.
Check out a full list of the winners.
Read Library Journal’s article about all the winners.
