Welcome to the Michigan Library Association

The Michigan Library Association presents seven professional awards throughout the year to recognize professionals and library supporters. The Award of Excellence, Trustee Citation of Merit, Loleta D. Fyan Award, Walter H. Kaiser Award and Librarian of the Year are presented at MLA's Annual Conference. 

Nominations for the 2010 awards are due March 29. Please submit nomination forms (available below) to: 

Award of Excellence

The Award of Excellence honors someone who has made an outstanding contribution to effective and improved local library service, promoted library cooperation, or contributed to professional or community activities.

The recipient of the 2009 Michigan Library Association Award of Excellence is Valerie Meyerson, Director of the Charlevoix Public Library.

Valerie Meyerson received her MLS in 1988 from Wayne State University. She has worked at Denver Public Library, Wixom Public Library, and for the past 8 years as the director of the Charlevoix Public Library. During her tenure, the library has gone from a 6,000 square foot building to a 24,000 square foot building. The collection size has increased 25%, circulation has more than doubled, and the number of programs has gone up from approximately 4 per month in 2006 to 30 per month in 2008. As one person wrote in her letter of support, “We now check out what events are at the library before we look to see what is at the movies.”Val has articulated a vision for the library as a community gathering place. She involved the community in the library’s expansion by having local volunteers participate in planning committees and capital campaigns. She has collaborated with schools, community groups, and local businesses, among others. Two community rooms, 2 conference rooms, and a computer lab are available to community groups and businesses.

Trustee Citation of Merit

Betty Nulty of the Salem-South Lyon District Library is this year’s recipient of the Trustee Citation of Merit. The citation honors an active MLA member who serves on a public library board or advisory committee, and contributed to the promotion, cooperation, or advancement of libraries.

Betty Nulty has served on the Salem-South Lyon library board since 1997. She has guided the library board through a library expansion from a 2,000 square foot building to a 15,000 square foot building. Most impressive is that through careful financial planning, this expansion was done without any additional cost to the taxpayers. She is not afraid to get her hands dirty – Betty orchestrated the packing, labeling, unpacking, and re-shelving of all of the library materials during the expansion.

Loleta D. Fyan Award

The Loleta D. Fyan Award is named in honor of Michigan’s most famous state librarian, Loleta Fyan, who served in that capacity for 20 years. Ms. Fyan was active in MLA and ALA and is noted for her many contributions to the library profession. The award is given to a librarian of less than 10 years who has made a creative contribution to library service in Michigan. The 2009 Loleta D. Fyan Award recipient is Oneka Wilson from the Detroit Public Library.

Oneka Wilson started her teen/children’s librarian career in the Children’s Library at Detroit Public Library in 2005. She worked with another librarian to start the Teen Reader’s Theater, a popular program. She was assigned to the HYPE (Helping Young People Excel) Center, transforming it into a destination for teens. In one year, she built her audience from zero to 5,000 repeat users, especially noteworthy since virtually all housing within a mile of the Main Library serves Wayne State University students who are too old for the HYPE Center. She has done this by maintaining a collection that teens want to use, and by having programming such as an Anime Club, video gaming contests, and a Teen Advisory Board.

Walter H. Kaiser Award

The 2009 recipient of the Walter H. Kaiser Award is John Robertson of the Troy Public Library. This award is in memory of Walter H. Kaiser, who served as the director of the Wayne County Federated Library System for 26 years and was a nationally known library consultant, authority in local government, and innovator in technical services. The award is presented annually to a librarian, trustee or person associated with libraries and the broad educational goal of librarianship, who contributes an idea, procedure, concept, or adaptation which results in the improvement of a library or libraries.

John has been instrumental in helping the Technology Department at Troy Public Library improve its service to the public. He helped organize and streamline the many online databases (described by his director as “a ball of rubber bands”) that Troy subscribed to into a manageable amount with less redundancy. Not only that, but he helped cross-reference the online resources with the print resources, with print duplications being weeded out of the collection. This freed up two stacks of shelf space, allowing more room for the teen collection. He has improved the library’s website into an interactive destination that is much easier for staff and patrons to navigate. Finally, he re-evaluated and revised many of the public computer classes. He created or helped create new classes based on community demand, such as Web 2.0 and Blogging for Beginners. The number of classes has nearly tripled with attendance increasing by 50 percent.

Librarian of the Year

The Librarian of the Year Award honors an outstanding member of the library profession, who has been instrumental in providing improved library service to his or her college, university, school institution, industry, or local community. The 2009 Librarian of the Year is Ruth Dukelow, of the Michigan Library Consortium.

Ruth came to Michigan in 1984. She is an expert on copyright law and has traveled around the country to present workshops and programs. Recently, she was named to the American Library Association’s Copyright Advisory Network. As a member of the panel, she answers questions and advises librarians about all aspects of copyright law. Ruth has been involved in many statewide projects. She is probably most well known for her work with online databases in Michigan. She helped develop MLC’s partnership with the statewide program, as well as negotiate the licenses for database access. When the Information Access Company called, overwhelmed at the response to the free databases, Ruth developed a plan to cope with the onslaught, and then she traveled to Michigan libraries to make sure that many librarians were trained to use this new resource. Once that was set up, she developed a plan to put more than 30 trained instructors all around the state. Ruth has helped nurture MeLCat as it has grown into a statewide catalog, and she has helped lay the foundation for the Evergreen open source library system. Finally, MLC’s partnership with INCOLSA, a statewide library network in Indiana, has moved beyond Michigan’s boundaries, insuring cost savings for libraries in both states.

Children’s Services Award of Merit

The Children’s Services Award of Merit is granted to a librarian who has made an outstanding contribution to library service to children and young people in Michigan. The 2009 Award of Merit was presented to Jennifer Taggart from the Bloomfield Township Public Library on April 15, at MLA’s Spring Institute in Lansing.

When Jen sees a need she looks for a way to meet it. Children with special needs are a population often underserved in a community. Jen set out to remedy this in her community. To meet the special needs of these children Jen initially borrowed an idea from another library but then greatly expanded upon it. The result was a Special Needs Collection available to the community. This collection has approximately 700 items including specially adapted toys for children with physical, communicative, sensory and cognitive disabilities. To create this incredible collection she worked closely with parents and specialists in the field of special education. She worked just as hard to gain the support of her co-workers throughout the library, and to promote the collection to the local schools and community at large. Jen’s creativity and enthusiasm are exemplified in her regular programs as well. She has taken the story time experience to new heights by creating a warm and inviting setting for the Cradle Club program for babies. She has added edible crafts and simple recipes to enliven the stories for slightly older children. She has expanded the library’s offerings of children’s book clubs by establishing a book club for kindergarten and first grade.

Frances H. Pletz Award Winner Announced

The Frances H. Pletz Award was established by the Michigan Library Association’s Young Adult Division in 1978. It is an annual award given to a Michigan public library worker who has made a significant contribution to the field of library service for teens. The award is named after Frances H. Pletz, a former Executive Director of the Michigan Library Association, because of her staunch support of teen services in our state. This year’s award was presented at the MLA Spring Institute to Patty Goonis, Teen Services Librarian at the Livonia Public Library Carl Sandburg branch.

Under Patty’s skilled collection development direction, the Livonia Carl Sandburg Library has seen a jump in circulation of Teen Fiction to a nearly unheard of 10% to 12% of the branch’s total circulation. She has also been on the forefront of accepting and collection new item types including computer games and playaways that her teens find popular. Throughout all this, Patty somehow has found the time to develop many cutting edge programs for teens, from one of the state’s largest prom dress exchange programs to a week long art camp she hosts the week AFTER summer reading! Perhaps Patty’s greatest contribution to teen services, however is in her one-on-one interactions with teen patrons, as she relates to them as few adults are able. Her honesty and authenticity resonates with teens and keeps them coming back into the library. In fact, a number of her teen patrons and Teen Advisory Committee members submitted letters to MLA in support of Patty for this award! As one of them wrote…"Patty Goonis does an amazing job involving and inspiring teens to take part and make a difference at their library; she truly deserves this award for all the hard work and dedication she has shown.">