Library Journal confirms what we (and we trust you) have long known: Librarians rock, particularly when faced with the unprecedented challenges of a pandemic.

The prominent trade magazine annually recognizes a Librarian of the Year, an individual or team “whose work embodies the best of the profession’s mission.” It announced that, for 2022, it is bestowing the award collectively on professional library staff members across North America “for taking care of themselves, patrons, and one another through tough times.”

That honors more than 350,000 staffers in the U.S. alone – including 285 across the Kansas City Public Library system.

“The past year has asked much from library workers across the country, among many others,” Library Journal said, pointing in part to the development of new services as the pandemic stretched time and resources and a heightened need to extend access to internet and digital devices and connect individuals with vital community services.
 
It also noted that libraries have leaned on staff members to enforce mask and in some instances vaccination mandates in their spaces.

“It’s your colleague behind the front desk,” the magazine said, “the volunteer shelving books, the outreach worker in the bookmobile, the tech staff member setting someone up with their first email account, the instructional librarian helping a first-year student navigate college resources, the school librarian fighting to keep Lawn Boy and Ruby Bridges Goes to School on the shelves for students eager to see the diversity of their world reflected in their reading, the medical librarian wrangling pandemic research to support colleagues saving lives.

“Congratulations. You’ve earned it.”

Joel Jones, the Kansas City Public Library’s deputy director for library services, echoed Library Journal’s admiration.

“When I saw this,” he said, “the first thing I thought about was all of the people who’ve worked here in the past year, or since the onset of the pandemic – the things they’ve had to deal with and their passion and commitment to continuing their work in challenging conditions. When we were told by the city that we had to close our doors (from March to mid-May 2020), we didn’t stop serving people. We’ve grown our services since then. We’ve changed them; we’ve focused more on outreach.

“It was all of our staff. They just went out and did it because that’s what they do. They care about the work they do.”

The Library has had one individual winner of Library Journal’s Librarian of the Year Award: then-Director Dan Bradbury in 1991.