NEW YORK

By HILLEL ITALIEAP National Writer

The I Love My Librarian Award celebrates librarians making a difference. Valerie Byrd Fort fights book bans at the University of South Carolina. Joanne Doucette mentors biomedicine students in Massachusetts. Mary Anne Russo transformed a basement into a family space in Ohio. These are just a few of the 10 winners who receive a $5,000 prize and a $750 stipend for the American Library Association’s convention in Chicago. The winners were chosen from over 1,300 submissions. ALA President Sam Helmick praises their contributions to communities and learning. The awards began in 2008, honoring librarians’ leadership and innovation.

NEW YORK (AP) — There are many ways to win an I Love My Librarian Award.

You might be a fighter against book bans, like Valerie Byrd Fort at the University of South Carolina; or a mentor for graduate students researching biomedicine, like Joanne Doucette at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, or transform a dark basement into a gathering space for families, like Mary Anne Russo at the Hubbard Public Library in Ohio.

They are among 10 recipients of the I Love My Librarian Award, which comes with a $5,000 cash prize and a $750 stipend for the American Library Association's annual convention, held this year in Chicago from June 25-29. The winners were selected from a pool of more than 1,300 submissions by library patrons who explain how a “librarian made a difference in your life or gone above and beyond to serve your community.”

“We recognize the remarkable contributions these 10 librarians make for our communities, for learning, for our health and for the public good,” ALA President Sam Helmick said in a statement Monday. “These librarians are people who power possibility in our neighborhoods, our schools, and our places of higher learning. Their leadership, creativity, and innovation strengthen the communities they serve, and we are proud to honor them.”

Other winners include Tracy Fitzmaurice from Jackson County, North Carolina, praised by the ALA as a “transformative leader for rural libraries”; Deb Sica of the Alameda County Library, in Fremont, California, a champion of diversity and intellectual freedom; Zachary Stier, who has worked for years on literacy projects at the Ericson Public Library, in Boone, Iowa; and Christine Szeluga of New Jersey's Cranford High School, where she secured grants for a podcast studio and history archive.

Also cited were Mahasin Ameen, whose initiatives at Indiana University cover everything from health literacy to information literacy; Mia Gittlen, who transformed the shuttered library at California's Milpitas High School; and Jenny Cox of South Carolina's Georgetown Middle School who worked to boost funding for thousands of new books.

The awards, established in 2008, are presented by the ALA, the New York Public Library and Carnegie Corporation of New York.