10 winners of the ‘I Love My Librarian Award’ are celebrated for their community work

By HILLEL ITALIE The Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — At Wisconsin’s Mukwonago Community Library, director Abby Armour isn’t only committed to providing books and other media for local residents.

Armour, one of 10 recipients this year of an “I Love My Librarian Award,” has been overseeing the cataloging of some 12,000 Native American artifacts donated to the library in the 1960s and making sure they are returned to the tribes that have claimed them. Armour’s efforts led to members of her community nominating her for the honor presented by the American Library Association, which gives each of the 10 winners $5,000 and a $750 stipend for an association gathering next month in Phoenix.

The other librarians cited by the ALA are based everywhere from Morgantown, West Virginia, to Wailuku, Hawaii.

“Librarians nationwide make positive impacts on their communities every day, and the inspiring stories from this year’s I Love My Librarian Award recipients prove how transformative their efforts can be to the lives of their patrons,” Cindy Hohl, ALA president, said in a statement Monday.

At Morgantown’s Suncrest Elementary School, library media specialist Charlotte Chung was praised for her work with reluctant readers and those learning English. Bookmobile librarian Jessica Gleason of the Wailuku Public Library assisted residents displaced by the 2023 wildfires in Lāhainā. Analine Johnson, of Johnson High School in Laredo, Texas, helps students from low-income families, and Nelson Santana of New York City’s Bronx Community College is building an archive on Dominican, Caribbean and other cultures which reflect the students’ background.

Other librarians selected include Jamar Rahming of Delaware’s Wilmington Institute Free Library, where celebrity speakers have included Dolly Parton and LeVar Burton; and Theresa Quiner of the Kuskokwim Consortium Library, where she has worked to improve access to books and other resources for patrons in the remote community of Bethel, Alaska.

At Miles College in Fairfield, Alabama, former student Candice Hardy directs the campus resource center. Missy Creed at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, is deeply involved with providing reliable health information, and Peggy Griffith of the Ferris School in Wilmington assists court-committed teens transition back into the community.

The I Love My Librarian Award was established 2008, and is sponsored by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, with assistance from the New York Public Library.

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This story corrects the spelling of the last name of Abby Armour.