Celebrate National Library Workers Day by Nominating a Library Star

April 4, 2012

National Library Workers Day is right around the corner, on April 10. In honor of all the unheralded library employees across the country, the ALA–Allied Professional Association (ALA-APA) is asking those in the profession to nominate “star” library employees for public recognition.

“Libraries work because we do,” said Lorelle Swader, director of the Office for Human Resources Development and Recruitment and ALA-APA. “Once a year we take time to recognize the hard work of so many who are the very backbone of library service helping these organizations succeed.”

Library employees are crucial to our economy and culture. They help small business owners formulate plans; assist graduates in locating funding to continue their educations; encourage children to fall in love with reading; assist grandparents in connecting with their grandchildren; and guide seniors in getting comfortable with the latest technology, among a myriad of other things.

Since 2003, National Library Workers Day (NLWD) has been celebrated on the Tuesday of National Library Week (this year April 8–14) to recognize the contributions of all library workers, including librarians, support staff, and others who make library services possible.

Anyone may nominate a star library worker or team for creativity, enthusiasm, customer service, or that special something they add to a library. Nominees can be anyone—students, workers, supervisors, or even yourself. Submit nominations through the NLWD website. New nominations will be showcased there in the Galaxy of Stars.

Here are excerpts from some of the nominations that have been posted on the site so far:

Brooke, from a school library in Birmingham, Alabama, is described as “the go-to person for any research in the area of history” at her library.
Alexa, a children’s librarian at a public library in Edinburg, Texas, provides programming to community children from 18 months to 12 years of age. Her colleague writes, “She is always looking for ways to improve her teaching skills by attending workshops and webinars on a regular basis.”
Kristen is from an academic library in Corvallis, Oregon. “She is a Jill-of-all-trades, thinks fast on her feet, and is an energetic leader. Our library staff, student, and community users all know her by name.”

There are also other ways to celebrate NLWD. In addition to nominating stars, NLWD celebrants can advocate for increased funding and staffing in libraries; invite the public to see who makes it possible for that favorite DVD or book to be available; deliver book-shaped cookies to branches; send thank-you notes to their favorite workers; or purchase T-shirts, bags, and stickers at the NLWD store in support of the celebration.

For more ideas, visit the Celebration Ideas page. How are you celebrating NWLD? Post your ideas and activities on the ALA-APA’s Facebook page or here under the comments section.

Tagged Under

Advocacy

Professor Brian Trump of the British Library’s British Medieval Cookbook Project reported a near-miraculous find of a long-lost 14th-century cookbook with recipes for hedgehog, blackbird, and unicorn (pictured).

April Fools! The Year’s Best Library Pranks

Here are some of our favorite hoaxes from the LIS world this year

Roland G. Parrish Library Dedication

On April 27, 2012, Purdue University dedicated the Roland G. Parrish Library. At the dedication, American Libraries’ Pamela A. Goodes interviewed Parrish about what he hopes the library will accomplish and the importance of business education for people of all ethnicities.

Latest Library Links

16h

Genevieve Trainor writes: “The Guinness World Record holder for Most Prolific Book Thief is Ottumwa (Iowa’s) Stephen Blumberg. The 23,600 volumes he accumulated between the 1970s and his arrest in March of 1990 were all stashed in his 17-room home. Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, got involved with Blumberg as part of the FBI’s efforts to return the stolen manuscripts and rare books to their museums and libraries. Referred to as the Omaha Project, the information science proving ground involved four weeks, 44 catalogers and reference librarians and 600 volunteer hours to determine who might be the rightful owners.”

Little Village (Dubuque, Iowa), Dec. 4
20h

Casey Newton writes: “At the moment, no one knows for sure whether the large language models that are now under development will achieve superintelligence and transform the world. And in that uncertainty, two primary camps of criticism have emerged. The first camp, which I associate with the external critics, holds that artificial intelligence (AI) is fake and sucks. The second camp, which I associate more with the internal critics, believes that AI is real and dangerous. Today I want to lay out why I believe AI is real and dangerous.”

Platformer, Dec. 5
2d

Latia Ward writes: “One way to keep current with what students think of the library and its services is through Student Library Advisory Committee meetings. These meetings are a way to gather feedback and reinforce the library as a welcoming place. How do librarians create a welcoming environment within Student Library Advisory Committee meetings? Librarians create a welcoming environment through community, purpose, and dedicated space.” Also see part 1 of this blog post.

RIPS Law Librarian Blog, Nov. 13, Dec. 5
2d

Eleanor Hecks writes: “Few things are as frustrating to a user as when a site won’t respond. Unfortunately, it’s also an all-too-common scenario. Graceful degradation is a design approach that ensures the basics of a website will still function even if specific individual parts of it stop working. The approach removes single points of failure: just because one thing stops working doesn’t mean the system as a whole fails. A site following this principle fails in pieces instead of all at once, so the most important features remain available when some components encounter an error.”

Smashing Magazine, Dec. 6
3d

Camruinn Morgan-Rumsey and Lexi Lepof write: “On December 3, Knox County (Tenn.) schools received a list from the district of books to be removed from school libraries under Tennessee’s Age-Appropriate Materials Act. Knox County’s board of education voted in July, passing a policy to remove ‘explicit’ books from everyday student access in response to the new law. Some of the books on the list of nearly 50 titles might surprise parents. Among those to be removed are Shel Silverstein’s A Light in the Attic and Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five.”

WVLT-TV (Knoxville, Tenn.), Dec. 4
3d

Joe Foley writes: “Copyright rules vary from country to country and have changed over time. In the US, works created between 1929 and 1963 that gave notice and renewed copyright have 95 years from their first publication date. That means that on January 1, 2025, a host of works from 1929 will enter the public domain. This means that copyright will expire on Buck Rogers, Captain Easy, Horace Horsecollar, Tintin, Hal Foster’s first Tarzan comic strips and, yes, Popeye.” Other notable works entering public domain in the United States include the Marx Brothers’ first film, The Cocoanuts, contralto Marian Anderson’s first record, and Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms.

Creative Bloq, Dec. 7; Everybody’s Libraries, Dec. 3, Dec. 7; Public Domain Review, Dec. 10
4d

Brittany Adams writes: “The digital landscape of libraries is expanding rapidly, with an increasing shift towards electronic resources and online services. As members of the library community, we’re witnessing a transformative era where physical collections are complemented—and sometimes replaced—by digital ones. This transition offers new opportunities for enhancing accessibility and engagement, but it also presents challenges, especially for young patrons and their families. It is essential to equip children and their caregivers with the tools and knowledge they need to navigate this evolving space confidently.”

ALSC Blog, Dec. 9