Allison Sloan Named Library Journal's Paraprofessional of the Year

Allison Sloan, senior library associate at Reading Public Library, has been named Library Journal's 2010 Paraprofessional of the Year.  Sloan was scheduled to receive her award  at the American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference on June 29. 

Sponsored by library supply company, DEMCO, Inc., the award recognizes the role of paraprofessional librarians in providing excellent library service.  Michael Colford, Sloan's former boss and now head of technical services at Boston Public Library, nominated Sloan. The editors of Library Journal elected Sloan from a competitive group of nominations. Sloan was also recently honored at a selectmen's meeting.

Although the award is for "Paraprofessional of the Year," Sloan spearheaded the efforts in getting the Massachusetts Library Association (MLA) to change the name to "paralibrarian."  She explained that the name for the library support staff was paraprofessional librarians. 

Shortening the name to " paralibrarian" from "paraprofessional" is a more accurate description of "our role in libraries." She said she is also working to have the name changed in the American Library Association (ALA).

Recently promoted to senior library associate in the Technical Services Department, Sloan has been at Reading Library for 20 years. Her current responsibility is interlibrary loans from statewide and national libraries. If a patron can't find a book in the NOBLE (North of Boston Library Exchange), then Sloan will search for it in libraries outside the consortium.  She also handles the acquisition and processing of audio books, working with both librarians and vendors. 

When asked how she got interested in technical services, Sloan, who once worked in circulation, volunteered to serve on a team to train staff when the library was changing over to an online system. A short time later, there was an opening in technical services so she applied for the position. 

The growth of the Internet allowed her to visit the New York Public Library and other libraries, which "opened up what I can do now."

Sloan has also been active in the Reading community as chair and member of the Cultural Council, which has funded young author visits and library programming.

Sloan said Colford was her mentor when he was at the Reading Library. She explained "he saw a gap at the MLA in programming for paralibrarians."

Encouraged by her boss to reach out, Sloan was instrumental in rejuvenating the paralibrarian section of MLA. As chair for six years, Sloan still serves on its executive board. 

Sloan developed the conference, "Behind Every Great Librarian is a Great Paraprofessional. " The name paralibrarian was adopted soon after the conference. She won the MLA Paralibrarian advocate of the year honor in 2004. Then, through the state, she got involved with the national board.

Corinne Fisher, head of Children's Services at the library, said, "Allison is great with library projects and goes out of her way when dealing with (audio book) vendors." She described Sloan as "a good representative of the library and town."

Library Director Ruth Urell said, in addition to her outstanding service at the library, "Allison's biggest contribution has been with her work with paralibrarian advocacy."

Chosen along with 10 others, Sloan was invited to be national base tester for a four-year certification program for paraprofessional librarians. More recently, Sloan was asked to be the editor of an international paralibrarian news associates publication.