Young adult librarian honored with national award

NEW YORK » Laurie Doan, young adult librarian at the Tredyffrin Public Library in Strafford, Pennsylvania, was named a winner of this year’s I Love My Librarian Award. Doan is being recognized for her leadership in transforming lives and communities through education and lifelong learning. She is one of only 10 librarians in the country this year to receive this national honor.

Doan is commended for empowering local teens. She develops opportunities at the library for youth to pursue projects they are passionate about.

When Doan learned students had an interest in theater but were cut from the highly competitive high school musicals in the area, she created a “second theater” in the library where they could bring books to life. Students have produced more than a dozen musicals in the library space.

Doan offers the library as a space for teens to hold fundraisers. She helped one teen turn the library into a dance hall to raise money for his Eagle Scout project. With Doan’s assistance, other young adults have raised nearly $10,000 for a range of causes, including buying school supplies for local children and fighting hunger in developing countries.

Doan is also a mentor to young adults. She encouraged one teen who has Asperger’s Syndrome to act in one of the theater productions at the library. He gained enough confidence to take a theater class in high school which led to him making the final round of the National History Day state competition.

Doan received a $5,000 prize at an award ceremony and reception held in New York City. The ceremony is hosted by Carnegie Corporation of New York, which co-sponsors the award along with The New York Public Library and The New York Times. The American Library Association administers the award through its Public Awareness Office, which promotes the value of libraries and librarians.

As part of the award process, library users are invited to nominate librarians working in public, school, college, community college and university libraries. This year 1,125 nominations were submitted by library users nationwide detailing how their favorite librarians have gone above and beyond to improve community members’ lives.

In the United States there are 190,000 librarians working in libraries of all types, and only 100 librarians have been selected for this distinguished honor since the award’s inception in 2008.

This year’s award recipients include three academic librarians, four public librarians and three school librarians. A complete list of the 2017 I Love My Librarian Award recipients can be found at ilovelibraries.org/ilovemylibrarian<http://www.ilovelibraries.org/lovemylibrarian>

Laurie Doan