Carnegie/Times I Love My Librarian Award Winners Announced

Norman Oder -- Library Journal, 12/10/2008

• Award includes $5000 prize
• Ceremony held at The Times Center in New York City
• Evolution of Times librarian awards

After a brief hiatus, the New York Times librarian awards are back, now under the auspices the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the New York Times. The I Love My Librarian Award honored ten librarians from diverse libraries and locations at a ceremony and lavish reception December 9 at the new Times Center in New York City. Each winner receives $5000. The awards are administered in conjunction with the American Library Association (ALA), and President Jim Rettig was on hand to present them. Award winners included school, public, and academic librarians, several of whom referred to the funding issues now confronting libraries in general. 

Among the winners, selected from 3200 nominees, were Amy J. Cheney, a 2006 LJ Mover & Shaker, who made readers out of teens at the Alameda County (CA) Juvenile Detention Hall. In her acceptance, Cheney said she wanted to represent "the youth" and advocate for "reading and the importance of reading." She noted that "because of funding our libraries often don't have books." Pasco County (FL) library director Linda Allen told the audience, "This is an important award at a time when libraries are under economic sanctions.....It makes us known to the people with the money."

 The winners are:

• Linda Allen, Libraries Director, Pasco County Library System, Hudson, FL
• Jean Amaral, Reference Librarian, Antioch University New England, Keene, NH
• Amy J. Cheney, Librarian, Alameda County Library, Juvenile Hall, San Leandro, CA
• Jennifer Lankford Dempsey, Library Media Specialist and Technology Coordinator, Wrights Mill Road Elementary School
  Auburn, AL
• Carol W. Levers, Community Services Librarian, Kansas City PL, KS; Weekend Supervisor, Plaza Branch Library, Kansas City PL, MO
• Dr. Margaret “Gigi” Lincoln, Library Media Specialist, Lakeview High School Library, Battle Creek, MI
• Iona R. Malanchuk, Associate University Librarian and Head of the Education Library, University of Florida, Gainesville
• Elaine McIlroy, Director, Wellfleet Public Library, MA
• Paul McIntosh, Library Media Specialist, Wadleigh Secondary School For The Performing and Visual Arts, New York, NY
• Arezoo Moseni, Senior Librarian, The New York Public Library, Mid-Manhattan Library, The Art Collection

“Librarians are even more important to their communities in this digital age,” said Vartan Gregorian, president of Carnegie Corporation of New York. “These ten librarians deserve applause because their professionalism has won the attention and respect of their neighbors.”

Selection process
Nominations were open to degreed librarians working in public, school, college, community college and university libraries. The selection committee included Dr. Loriene Roy, professor at the University of Texas at Austin, School of Information (and former ALA president); Dr. Rookaya Bawa, program officer at Carnegie Corporation of New York; Annalisa R. Crews, library media specialist at Homewood High School, Homewood, AL; Karen Danczak Lyons, first deputy commissioner of Chicago Public Library; Diane McNulty, executive director of Community Affairs and Media Relations at The New York Times; and Dr. Laverna M. Saunders, university librarian at Duquesne University, Pittsburgh.

ALA administered the award through the Campaign for America’s Libraries. The award, which began as The New York Times Librarian Awards in 2000, is now a collaborative program of Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Times, and ALA