L–R: Sylvia Cieply, Leslie D. Koch, Dona J. Helmer, April Roy  Photo Courtesy of Sara Kelly Johns

    School librarians from Alaska, California and North Carolina are among the 10 honorees for the 2015 I Love My Librarian Award. They're being applauded for their exceptional public service and ongoing commitment to transforming lives through education and lifelong learning. The winning librarians were selected from a pool of more than 1,300, nominated by colleagues and patrons who use public, school, college, community college, or university libraries. The winners were honored in New York City on Thursday, December 3 during a ceremony at the headquarters of the Carnegie Corporation, one of the sponsors of the award. The New York Public Library and the New York Times are also sponsors, with the award being administered by the American Library Association (ALA). These latest inductees join an esteemed group recognized as catalysts for individual and community change. Eighty librarians have received the award since its inception in 2008. The 2015 I Love My Librarian Award recipients include four academic librarians, three public librarians, and three school librarians. Vartan Gregorian, president of the Carnegie Corporation, told the 100 attendees that “Libraries and museums are the DNA of our civilization,” and that each library is a “station of hope.” “It is gratifying to have the I Love My Librarian Award bring much deserved recognition to librarians.  As libraries transform, so do librarians to support individual opportunity and community progress,” said Sari Feldman, ALA president. “Every day librarians connect library users with the books, information, and critical technology resources they need to thrive in the digital age.”

She gives new options to kids “with poor judgment”

Award winner Sylvia Cieply is the first certified teacher librarian at Otto A. Fischer School Library in the Orange County (CA) Juvenile Hall. Having previously been an elementary school librarian, she approached her new position serving incarcerated youth ages 12 to 20 with some trepidation.  She soon learned that “they are just kids with poor judgment,” she said during her acceptance speech; she works to “expand what their lives can be.”  One way she does that is by boosting their cultural literacy. One of her favorite means to that end is showing classic films in her library, ranging from ones starring the Marx Brothers to Arsenic and Old Lace. “Ms. Cieply doesn’t just try to give the students the books they want, but the books they don’t know they wanted until they see them,” says Dave Busch, the fellow teacher who nominated her for the award.

A well-deserved birthday present

Leslie D. Koch, school library media coordinator at Armstrong Elementary School in Eastover, NC, was nominated by her 72-year-old library volunteer. Koch has been a school librarian for 13 years, and the nomination letter explained that she “teaches with her heart” at the underserved school. Through her efforts in revising teaching standards, reading scores at her school went up an average of 13.4 points since 2002, when she took the job. Koch feels extra lucky, she says, having received the call informing her of the award on her birthday. Her luck continued during her stay in New York City, where she was handed a coveted VIP pass to the lighting of the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree by a stranger.

Cooking up a lifelong love of libraries

“An instructional coach, a helpmate, and a cheerleader for information and books,” is how Dona J. Helmer is described by her nominating colleague. The librarian at College Gate Elementary School in Anchorage, AK, has written over 150 grants for her school.  One of them provided art excursions; another gave a slow cooker to all second graders in the Farm to School program. In that program, for which Dona does the bulk of the work, kids learn about Alaskan-grown produce and how to cook it. She recalls being a sophomore in high school when her English teacher gave her the key to the library. That small act set her towards librarianship. Now, she tells departing students, “You may be leaving me, but you are never leaving libraries.”

Book ban fighter, super hero wrangler among public librarians

Among the public librarians recognized was April Roy, manager of the Kansas City (MO) Public Library, Lucille H. Bluford Branch, who hosts a Super Hero Training Camp for kids. Children arrive in costume, make crafts to keep, and "practice feats of strength, agility and bravery." At the end, they each get an official Super Hero Certificate for the effort. Roy was especially emotional about receiving the award because it validates her non-traditional approach to librarianship—and because it’ll be leverage for more resources for her many low-income patrons. The youth of Hood County, TX will have access to LGBT themed books, thanks to Courtney P. Kincaid, the former library director of the Hood County Library.  Her fight to retain This Day in June (Magination, 2014) by Gayle Pitman and My Princess Boy (Aladdin, 2010) by Cheryl Kilodavis drew national attention. The other honorees included: Diane Brown, New Haven (CT) Free Public Library, Stetson Branch; Doug Campbell, Willis Library, University of North Texas, Denton, TX; Elizabeth G. Rumery, Avery Point Campus Library, University of Connecticut, Groton, CT; Christopher A. Shaffer, Troy (AL) University; Shugana Williams, Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, Perkinston (MS) Campus. For more information regarding all the 2015 I Love My Librarian Award recipients, visit ilovelibraries.org/ilovemylibrarian   RELATED: See last year's winners.