LJ presented its first Teaching Award last night to Toni Samek. Picking award winners it’s always a tough chore because there are so many deserving librarians and libraries doing the remarkable. You hope you’re making the right choice.

I can say with 100 percent certainty that Toni is the absolute right choice to be the inaugural winner. When accepting her award, she touched everyone’s hearts when revealing that she took a healthy portion of her $5K award purse and is using it to help her students and the school.

As tough as it was to select a teacher this year, tapping Samek will make it even harder next year, because Toni has set the bar so high. I have no doubt that there are other fabulous teachers out there, but, Toni, you truly deserve to be forever the first winner of this award.

If future winners are half as good as you, LJ will be happy.