What do a youth services coordinator from Anchorage Public Library, a librarian for history, Latin American studies, and romance languages at SUNY Albany, and a library media specialist from Dallas, Texas, have in common?

They are three winners of the I Love My Librarian Award, which recognizes librarians working in public, school, college, community college, or university libraries for their outstanding public service contributions.

Since the award’s inception in 2008, library users nationwide have submitted more than 21,000 nominations detailing how librarians transformed their communities, including efforts to improve inclusivity, digital access, and literacy. TO date, 130 librarians have received this distinguished honor. And now the American Library Association (ALA) is looking to add another 10 to the list.

Nominations for the I Love My Librarian Award open June 23 and are accepted online through September 27, 2021.

ALA member leaders will select ten librarians from thousands of nominations, and each will receive $5,000 in recognition of their outstanding public service. The association will honor award recipients at the I Love My Librarian Award ceremony on January 22, 2022 at ALA’s new event, LibLearnX: The Library Learning Experience. Winners also will receive complimentary LibLearnX registration as part of their award package.

Know an incredible librarian who deserves to be recognized? Get inspired by reading about past winners, including winning submissions from their patrons. Then nominate your favorite librarian. More information is available online, as are promotional resources for your library to spread the word.

As director of the Hollidaysburg Area Public Library in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, Janet Eldred has overseen major projects like building renovation and smaller daily tasks like working tirelessly with her team, lugging books, and sitting cheerfully at library booths through rainy festivals.

But the challenge she now faces with remarkable dignity and grace is a medical one.

In 2012, Eldred was diagnosed with early-stage dementia. Since then, she has not only experienced increasingly impaired cognitive function, but she has also developed neurological complications, including occasional seizures and bouts of syncope (loss of consciousness).

In 2019, in a speech for which she received a standing ovation (but does not recall giving), she observed: “You’ve often heard it said: No one is promised tomorrow. Life is fragile. I have learned that applies to the past as well. No one is promised yesterday, either. The one thing you can grasp is the moment. This is the moment you can choose what to do and who to be. The future and the past will take care of themselves.”

Her colleagues and patrons recognize her for her tireless work in the Hollidaysburg Public Library and community at large and celebrate her energy, zeal, cheerful kindness, inspiring selfless directorship, and for her determination to continue serving her community despite the immense complications of her medical condition.

Her goal – a “moonshot” – is to raise $1 million for her library, and the $10,000 prize associated with the Lemony Snicket Prize for Nobel Librarians Faced With Adversity, which she was awarded in April 2021, will go toward that.

In accepting the prize in June, Eldred said, “Early-stage dementia was a bad beginning, but my husband and I saw room, no, a wide window to turn a miserable decline into a kind of elevator. With the help of a village, my staff and board of directors and, with sticky notes, I remain grimly determined to serve my library as long as I can. Sometimes I think I’ve reached my ultimate day, so it’s thrilling to receive this award before the end.”

Read more stories about amazing librarians.

Miriam Tuliao didn’t learn how to swim until she was in her 40s. But now she’s an open-water masters swimmer-and she’s using her time in the water to support causes important to her and to honor individuals who have made positive contributions to the library world.

This month, Tuliao will swim Grimaldo’s Mile, a one mile open water event in New York City, on July 31 to raise funds for the American Library Association’s Spectrum Scholarship Program, which actively recruits and provides scholarships to American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian, Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino, Middle Eastern and North African, and/or Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander students to assist them with obtaining a graduate degree and leadership positions within the profession.

This is Tuliao’s 14th consecutive year organizing an annual fundraiser for Spectrum. Her swim will be in honor of Shauntee Burns-Simpson, president of the Black Caucus of the American Library Association and associate director of school outreach for The New York Public Library.

Tuliao is a library marketing manager at Penguin Random House. Before joining the publishing world, she served as the assistant director of selection at BookOps, the shared technical services organization of New York Public Library and Brooklyn Public Library.

In 2017, she told American Libraries magazine: “Librarians of color are in many ways ambassadors in their communities. They are our links to language, culture, to the collections and service, and they can extend their role to [the] families of users in their community, broadening the reach of service.”

Tuliao cites a Filipino saying-utang na loob-which means “a debt of the soul.” It’s why she says she feels a strong debt to colleagues and is inspired to help “provide new librarians an opportunity to fly.”

Support Tuliao’s efforts by contributing to ALA at ec.ala.org/donate, selecting Spectrum, and making your gift in tribute to Miriam Tuliao. All donations are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.

f you love libraries (and we’re assuming you do because that’s the name of this website!), you are in great company.

This week, former President Barack Obama spoke to the American Library Association about his recent book A Promised Land. He also had a few things to say about libraries and librarians. Spoiler alert: he’s a fan.

Here’s what he had to say: “I do believe that libraries are citadels of knowledge and empathy, and they’ve been extraordinarily important in my life. And I want to thank all the librarians out there, whether you’re in a small town, big city, you opening up the world for our children, giving them access to possibilities that they might not otherwise have, creating safe spaces where reading is cool, you mean a lot to not just those individuals who benefit from your work, but you mean a lot to our democracy and our country. We appreciate you. Keep it up.”

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After more than a decade on Team USA, wheelchair racer Amanda McGrory is starting a new chapter with the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC). As the organization’s staff archivist, she’s drawing on personal experience as well her professional expertise to preserve and share the nation’s athletic history.

McGrory has been competing at the highest level of her sport for fifteen years. Representing the United States, she’s earned seven Paralympic and 13 World Championship medals; she’s also a fixture on the international marathon scene, taking first in high-profile races like the London, Paris, and New York Marathons. In 2018, she added a master’s degree in library and information science from the University of Illinois to her roster of accomplishments.

McGrory fit her graduate studies in between training and competitions to ensure a smooth career transition after eventually retiring from athletics. “You cannot be a professional athlete forever. That is a career that has a pretty strict expiration date,” she told I Love Libraries. “My biggest fear was getting caught in a position where I hadn’t planned for the future.”

When she first started library school, McGrory had no idea she would end up as an archivist for the team she’d dedicated so much of her life to. She considered specializing in public and academic libraries before falling in love with special collections-and when she found an internship posting for the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Archives in Colorado, everything started to click.

“It’s absolutely amazing how perfectly everything came together,” she shared. The internship was magical: one day, she was sifting through boxes of artifacts and pulled out Serena Williams’ signed tennis shoe from the 2008 Beijing Games. “That is the moment that it hit me: these are amazing pieces of history from some of the most incredible athletes in the world, and I’m just holding it. It was like, ‘this is what I want to do.'”

After her internship ended, McGrory returned to Illinois to train for the 2019 World Championships and 2020 Paralympic Games, her final competitions before retirement. Just as she was looking for a post-athletics job, the USOPC archivist announced her retirement, creating a unique career opening for McGrory’s skills and interests. When COVID-19 postponed the Tokyo Games and upended McGrory’s racing plans, she packed up her life and moved back to Colorado to lead the archives.

Being the only full-time staffer at a world-class archive like this one is no small feat, but after years of intense competition, McGrory feels at home in daunting situations. “A lot of being an archivist is about being self-driven, with collection development and accepting artifacts,” she said. “In my experience working as an athlete, I rely a lot on my independence. I’m very confident in my instincts.”

Working for USOPC while maintaining a spot on the Team USA roster has been a singular experience for McGrory: “I have the fun distinction of being the only current athlete ever to be on staff at the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee. It’s been really interesting to be able to see things from both sides.”

McGrory’s plans for the rescheduled Tokyo Games are still up in the air-the Paralympic trials for track and field take place this June, and she’s making peace with the possibility of not qualifying. “I feel fortunate that I’ve already had the experience of going to the Games and winning medals. I was lucky enough to take six years to just be a professional athlete and get paid to travel around the world. I have no regrets there,” she explained. “If it’s time to walk away and to be finished, I’m OK with that. I’m ready to pursue some other passions.”

Either way, McGrory will use her role in the archives to champion better representation for the hundreds of Paralympians on Team USA. Her work fits into the USOPC’s broader push for inclusivity (including adding “Paralympic” to its official name in 2018), and McGrory has both personal experience and academic expertise to contribute-her master’s coursework focused on the history of adaptive athletics and wheelchair sports.

“It’s been great to be in a position where I’m able to help elevate those voices and add information about Paralympians into everything we do as an organization, whether it’s physical displays, artifacts, or stories that are being told,” she shared.

“There’s a great opportunity with the Paralympic Games to showcase the skills of these athletes as athletes first, beyond being individuals with disabilities. There’s been a big change within the past couple of years-the Paralympics aren’t just for people with disabilities to watch,” she continued. “These are incredible athletes that have mastered amazing skills, competing at the absolute highest level.”

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Photos courtesy of Joe Kusumoto and The News-Gazette.

Every day, librarians help people access information, discover the joy of reading, and feel welcome in their communities.

We asked I Love Libraries readers and the American Library Association’s social media followers to share how librarians have impacted their lives over the years. Here are a few of our favorite stories:

“I was 6 years old in first grade and we had a class trip to the library to get our first library card. We had to be able to write our names in script. I was so nervous my hand kept shaking and I couldn’t get a legible signature. The librarian took pity on me, took me aside and quietly invited me back for a tour with my mother (thought I would be calmer then) and she would personally have me sign and get my library card as a reward for being such a good reader. I have been reading, of course, ever since. Librarians rock!”-Judith E.

“Ingrid from the Saugatuck-Douglas District Library created an environment of genuine support and growth for new parents and infants in her weekly baby storytime. I started attending storytime when my son was three months old. Through the months and years of attending, he learned to respond and participate in the group, received invaluable social interaction, and was introduced to sensory play. Ingrid set a steadfast example for the new parents and gently guided us to become confident, eager, and sometimes silly caregivers. Through the unknowns and struggles of the early infant months, Ingrid was a constant. I sometimes wonder who benefited more from baby storytime-my son, or me.”-Erika R.

“Middle school is tough and this was no different for me. I was in 8th grade and had moved to a new school. I walked into the library while most students were eating in the school cafeteria. The librarian smiled at me and said, ‘Do you need any help?’ I responded, ‘I love to read but I don’t know what to pick.’ She made a recommendation and I was hooked. I will never forget that she was always happy to see me and I read everything she recommended. Her kindness helped me get through middle school and further instilled a love of reading. You never know how a book can change a student’s life.”-Bay C.

“My daughter’s school librarian, Suzanne, provided a port in the storm for our family when we were struck by tragedy. We were not prepared, obviously, and she allowed my daughter to take refuge in the library and find solace in the books and in her gentle presence. It has been 22 years since that awful time, but the memory of Suzanne’s kindness has never left me.”-Cindi W.

“My elementary school librarian took the time to notice when I was upset, and she talked it out with me. She just recognized I was hurting, and she listened. Plus, she ran an amazing library. I was her library helper, and I went on to get a master’s in library science. Over 36 years I’ve enjoyed working in university, corporate, and school libraries. I wish I’d had the opportunity to tell her how much she meant to me.”-Donna H.

“My librarian has changed my life in a multitude of ways. She is a woman who wears many hats, and who carries much wisdom. She always had an answer for my complex questions about school and life. She always knew exactly what to say and when to say it. I was given the honor of working closely with her through work study, but I have learned far much more with her than in any classroom I have ever been in. From helping me with homework to filling out scholarship applications, she’s been by my side. She will always hold a special place in my heart.”-Charity D.

Subscribe to the I Love Libraries newsletter for more great library stories. Lead image courtesy of the New York Public Library.