Awards

2019 AzLA LIBRARY LEADERSHIP AWARD

John Walsh

John Walsh is currently the Director of Library Services at Cochise College and the founding president of the Arizona Community College Library Consortium. John is most proud of the work he has accomplished with the staff and students of Cochise College.


Newton and Betty Rosenzweig Distinguished Service Award

Holly Henley

Holly began her career as a Children’s Librarian and then a Bookmobile Manager in public libraries in Virginia. Holly currently serves as Arizona’s State Librarian, Director of Archives and Records Management, Arizona Talking Book Library, E-rate, Library Development, and State of Arizona Research Library branches of the Arizona State Library.


Outstanding Library Service Award

Ken Zambos

Ken Zambos is the Workforce and Economic Development Manager for the Pima County Public Library. In this capacity, he creates strategic community partnerships and manages system-wide coordination and implementation of programming and services designed to assist entrepreneurs and small business owners interested in starting and growing successful businesses.


Emerging Leader Award

Jesse Simms

Jesse Simms has worked in libraries for over a decade and is currently the Library Technology Specialist for the Buckeye Public Library System. He has received or administered four LSTA grants including grants to: launch a library app, launch room reservation software and digital signage, and bring pop up eBook libraries to Buckeye.


Sharon G. Womack Outstanding Library Tech Award

Carter Gates

Carter has worked at Pima County Public Library since September of 2012. He has developed tools in support of at-risk youth, undeserved communities and library technology. He plans to further his education in Computer Science and Library Science is pursuit of work in technology and public libraries.


Outreach Service Award

Community Driven Archives Unit, Arizona State University Library

ASU Library’s Community-Driven Archives team is empowering historically marginalized communities in Arizona by creating inter-generational and inter-sectional safe spaces where people can become Community Archivists and reflect on their role in local history.


outstanding youth services Librarian award

Karen Mack

Karen Mack’s library experience includes 20 years of youth services work in Flagstaff and Sedona, Arizona. She unleashed her passion and expertise in a leadership role as Head of Youth Services at Sedona Public Library. Her efforts have brought about a re-purposing of the Children’s Room, and a noticeable increase in varied youth programming and library use by families and teens. Sedona Library has been nationally recognized by Library Journal as a Star-Rated library for the past five years.


Follett School Librarian of the year

Melody Holehan-Kopas

Melody’s educational career began with teaching at schools for the deaf in Arizona and California. She transitioned to a Teaching Librarian in 1997 at the Phoenix Days School for the Deaf, and then to the Cave Creek School District. For the past 17 years she has worked in libraries in the Deer Valley School District as a Teacher Librarian, a Library Clerk Supervisor, and currently the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program (IB MYP) Librarian and the District Lead Librarian.


friends of the oro valley public library support staff SCHOLARSHIP award

Victoria Mironenko

Victoria is currently in the Graduate program for Library and Information Science at the University of Arizona. She graduated from the U of A in spring 2019 with Bachelor's degree in Linguistics. She currently works at the Nanini Branch of the Pima County Public Library.


Library volunteer of the year award

Joyce Irwin, Kay Barnes, Mary Waters. Not pictured is Curtis Waters

Since 2014, this wonderful group of volunteers have helped the branch manager, Stephanie Fulton, in so many ways. As a small, rural and single staffed library, the volunteers are especially important. They continue to keep the library doors open when the manager is away, and are great library ambassadors. Without them, Elfrida Library would not continue to function as well as it does. With their vital help, the library circulation statistics have grown and program attendance has increased. They truly have helped me make Elfrida Library a vital component of the community.


Louise stephen's memorial scholarship

Alexander Soto

As a graduate student earning a Master of Library and Information Science from the University of Arizona and a member of the Knowledge River cohort, Alex is setting into motion his desire to provide library services in tribal communities on and off the reservation. With experience in public, academic and tribal libraries, Alex has already assembled a wide range of skills and abilities that attest to his commitment to providing library services. Currently, he works for the ASU Library system and oversees the operations at the Labriola National American Indian Data Center’s West Campus branch. Alex believes a career as a librarian synthesizes his creative, cultural and professional backgrounds, as well as his interest in social justice by democratizing access to information.


Horner Fellow

Michelle Ashley Gohr

Michelle is a First-Year Experience & Outreach Librarian at ASU