Remember Paul Clark? No? Maybe “The Library Guy” rings a bell?

The Clay County librarian became a fixture in the Capitol hallways as lawmakers prepared to slash millions of dollars from the state’s aid to libraries budget during the legislative session that ended in May. Lawmakers credited “The Library Guy’s” dogged and respectful lobbying (he used his vacation days to stand silently holding a sign pleading with lawmakers not to cut the library aid) when they put back $9.5 million they had originally cut from the library funding. The cut would have resulted in an even bigger loss of federal matching funds.

Clark’s persistence paid off big time for libraries around the state, and now for the Clay County librarian himself.

He’s one of the winners of the “I Love My Librarian” award administered by the American Library Association and sponsored by The Carnegie Corporation of New York and The New York Times.

The award “encourages library users to recognize the accomplishments of exceptional public, school, college, community college, or university librarians,” according to its website.

Clark, whose prize includes $5,000, was one of 10 winners selected from 2,000 submissions.

Tags: American Library Association, I Love My Librarian Award, Paul Clark, The Library Guy

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 7th, 2010 at 7:56 pm and is filed under Dara Kam, legislature, state budget, State House, State Senate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.