How 3 Award-Winning School Librarians Transformed Their Libraries

Across the United States, public schools average just 0.4 librarians per building, a staffing ratio that has turned the school library into an endangered institution. In 2026, three school librarians won the American Library Association's I Love My Librarian Award not by defending the status quo but by reinventing it entirely: Christine Szeluga built a podcast studio and makerspace at Cranford High School on grant funds; Jenny Cox orchestrated a $400,000 capital campaign to put 18,000 new books into South Carolina schools; and Mia Gittlen reopened a shuttered library in California as a hub for 3,100 students. Their budgets and timelines are concrete, and the tactics (integrating student input, using cost-per-pupil data with administrators, leveraging community nominations) are replicable for any media specialist. School library innovation at this level is rarely quiet; it is the difference between a library that gets staffed and one that gets mothballed.

The 2026 I Love My Librarian Award: What It Is and How Winners Are Selected

The I Love My Librarian Award is one of the most visible national honors for working librarians, and its nomination-driven structure makes it uniquely difficult to win. Established by the American Library Association and sponsored by Carnegie Corporation of New York, the award recognizes ten librarians annually from the full spectrum of library settings: public, academic (two-year and four-year), school (K-12), and detention facilities across the United States and its territories.¹ With hundreds to over 1,300 nominations submitted each cycle, the odds are steep, and the 2026 cohort's inclusion of three school librarians represents an unusually strong showing for the K-12 sector.²

How the Nomination Process Works

The award operates on a pure nomination model. Librarians cannot self-nominate; instead, library users and community members must submit nominations through an online form by the annual deadline, which fell on December 15, 2025, for the 2026 cycle.³ Nominations do not roll over, so a librarian passed over one year must be re-nominated to remain in contention.¹ This design reflects the award's core principle: excellence is measured by the relationships librarians build and the tangible impact they deliver to the people they serve. The ALA selection committee announces winners in late February or early March, and recipients are honored at the ALA Annual Conference in June. For 2026, the ceremony took place in Chicago on June 26.²

Eligibility and Selection Criteria

To qualify, a nominee must hold a master's degree in library and information science from an ALA-accredited program or CAEP-accredited school library media program and be employed in a U.S. library as of March 1, 2025.¹ The selection committee evaluates nominees on three broad dimensions: going above and beyond typical duties, transformative community impact, and work that promotes inclusivity, literacy, digital access, or outreach to vulnerable populations. Each winner receives a $5,000 cash award, a $750 travel stipend, and complimentary conference registration.³

Why the 2026 Results Matter for School Librarians

School librarians historically compete against public and academic librarians for a share of the ten slots, making the 2026 outcome noteworthy. Christine Szeluga, Jenny Cox, and Mia Gittlen claimed three of the ten spots, a signal that the selection committee recognized the innovation and advocacy work happening in K-12 libraries despite severe national understaffing.² The details of their winning strategies provide a roadmap for other school librarians seeking to elevate their programs and secure recognition for their impact.

Meet the 3 Winning School Librarians: Szeluga, Cox, and Gittlen

Some librarians transform their spaces through technology and creative programming, while others leverage fundraising prowess or advocacy to restore access where it has been lost. The three school librarians recognized by the 2026 I Love My Librarian Award represent distinct approaches to innovation, each offering a replicable model for library professionals facing different challenges and resource constraints.

Christine Szeluga: The Tech Integrator

At Cranford High School in New Jersey, Christine Szeluga reimagined what a school library could become. Rather than accepting a traditional model of quiet study spaces and book circulation, she secured grant funding to build a podcast studio and makerspace within the library. She also developed a local history archive that connects students to their community's past.

The results speak for themselves: circulation increased by 300 percent after these changes. Szeluga's podcast studio has since been integrated into the school's curriculum, meaning teachers across departments now send students to the library for assignments that involve audio production and digital storytelling. Her approach demonstrates how grant funding can launch initiatives that later become embedded in institutional programming, creating sustainability beyond the initial investment.

Jenny Cox: The Fundraiser and Advocate

Jenny Cox at Georgetown Middle School in South Carolina tackled a different problem: systemic underfunding across an entire county's school libraries. Her response was a $400,000 capital campaign that placed more than 18,000 new books in 18 school libraries throughout her district.

Cox's success required more than fundraising skills. She used cost data from the American Library Association to make a compelling case to her superintendent, ultimately negotiating a budget increase from $17 to $27 per student. This combination of external fundraising and internal advocacy created both immediate impact (the new books) and long-term structural change (the higher per-student allocation). Her model shows how librarians can use professional research and data to secure administrative buy-in.

Mia Gittlen: The Access Restorer

Mia Gittlen faced perhaps the starkest challenge: a shuttered library at Milpitas High School in California. Rather than accepting this closure, she worked to reopen the space and transform it into a central hub serving 3,100 students and 200 staff members.

Her story carries significant equity implications. When a school library closes, students who lack books at home or reliable internet access lose a critical resource. Gittlen's work restored that access point, creating a space where students could gather, study, and connect with resources regardless of their circumstances outside school. Her role exemplifies the kind of community librarianship that bridges institutional gaps for underserved populations.

Three Archetypes, One Lesson

Together, these librarians illustrate that innovation takes many forms:

• Tech integration: Szeluga shows how grant-funded spaces can boost engagement and become curriculum staples.
• Fundraising and advocacy: Cox demonstrates that data-driven negotiations and capital campaigns can transform resources across an entire district.
• Access restoration: Gittlen proves that reopening a closed library can serve as a powerful equity intervention.

Each path required community support, as all three were nominated by those they served. Their recognition validates approaches that any school librarian might adapt to local conditions and constraints. For those considering this library science career path, these stories show how proactive leadership can redefine a library's role within a school.

The School Librarian Staffing Crisis in 4 Numbers

The 2023-24 school year laid bare a staffing gap that makes the achievements of award winners like Szeluga, Cox, and Gittlen all the more remarkable. With fewer than one full-time librarian for every two schools nationwide, the professionals who do remain are stretched thin. Understanding the scale of the shortage is the first step toward advocacy.

Innovation Strategy 1: Building a Podcast Studio and Makerspace on a Grant Budget

The tension between ambitious programming ideas and limited school budgets is one of the most persistent challenges facing school librarians. Christine Szeluga's experience at Cranford High School in New Jersey shows it can be resolved: she secured grant funding to build a podcast studio that was later woven into the school curriculum, helping drive a 300% increase in circulation.¹ For librarians who want to replicate that kind of transformation, the first step is knowing where the money is and how to go after it.

Start With Federal and State Library Grants

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) administers Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) funding, which is distributed to every state through individual state library agencies. Each state sets its own priorities, award ranges, and eligibility rules, so the landscape varies considerably. Visit the IMLS website and your state library agency's grants page to review open cycles and past awards. Setting up keyword alerts on Grants.gov for terms like "makerspace," "podcast studio," or "school library" is a practical way to catch new opportunities as they appear.

Explore Professional Association and Corporate Grants

Several professional organizations offer annual grant programs specifically designed for school libraries:

• American Association of School Librarians (AASL): Publishes regular grant and award opportunities, often with lists of past winners and funded project descriptions that can serve as models for your own application.
• Follett: Has historically offered school library grants focused on collection development and technology integration.
• Dollar General Literacy Foundation: Funds literacy initiatives at schools that often meet Title I thresholds or serve high-need populations. Check their official grants page for current eligibility requirements.

Reviewing past recipients from these programs gives you a realistic sense of typical award sizes and the types of projects that win funding.

Build a Persuasive Application

Grant reviewers generally look for a clear connection between the proposed project and measurable student outcomes. Szeluga's success offers a template: she tied her podcast studio and makerspace directly to curriculum goals, which made the case for funding more compelling than a standalone technology request would have been.

When drafting your proposal, consider including:

• A specific problem statement grounded in your school's data (circulation trends, student engagement metrics, gap in programming).
• A project plan that names the equipment, space modifications, and timeline involved.
• A sustainability narrative explaining how the project will continue after grant funds are spent, such as integration into existing courses or adoption by other departments.
• Letters of support from administrators, teachers, or community members, which signal broad buy-in.

Keep Costs Flexible

Not every makerspace or podcast setup requires a large capital investment. Many school librarians start small, with a single recording microphone and free editing software, then scale up as student interest grows and additional funding becomes available. For those considering this career path, pursuing an online MLIS school librarianship program can provide both the credential and the advocacy skills needed to lead projects like these. The key lesson from Szeluga's story is not the dollar amount of the grant but the strategic thinking behind it: she identified what students wanted, found a funding mechanism that aligned with those goals, and built something the school valued enough to embed permanently in its curriculum.¹ That sequence, student input to grant application to curricular integration, is replicable at virtually any budget level.

A single grant-funded podcast studio helped Christine Szeluga at Cranford High School in New Jersey triple her library's circulation. The key distinction: because the studio was integrated into the school curriculum rather than treated as a standalone novelty, it drove sustained student engagement. Innovation that embeds into daily learning outlasts innovation that sits on a shelf.

Innovation Strategy 2: Running a $400K Capital Campaign for 18,000 New Books

A capital campaign is a focused fundraising effort with a specific dollar goal and a clear end use for the money. Jenny Cox, a school librarian at Georgetown Middle School in South Carolina, organized one that raised $400,000 and placed more than 18,000 new books across 18 school libraries in Georgetown County.¹ That works out to roughly $22 per book and about 1,000 new titles per school, a scale of collection development that most individual school budgets simply cannot support.

Using Data to Negotiate a Budget Increase

Before launching the campaign, Cox tackled a more immediate problem: chronic underfunding. She pulled cost benchmarks published by the American Library Association to show how Georgetown County's per-student library spending compared to recommended levels. Armed with that data, she secured a meeting with her superintendent and made the case that spending $17 per student was not enough to maintain a functional collection. The result was a budget increase to $27 per student, a 59 percent jump.¹ The lesson here is straightforward: administrators respond to numbers, and national benchmarks give you a credible reference point.

If you want to replicate this approach in your own district, the process looks like this:

• Calculate your baseline: Divide your district's total annual library materials budget by total student enrollment. That gives you the per-student figure.
• Benchmark against recommendations: Compare your number to the spending figures published by ALA and your state library association. If there is a gap, quantify it.
• Frame the ask in student terms: Present the shortfall not as a line-item deficit but as a per-student impact. Telling a superintendent that each student is missing out on $10 worth of library resources per year is more persuasive than citing a lump-sum budget gap.
• Request a specific meeting: Cox did not send an email. She met face to face with decision-makers, which gave her the chance to walk through the data in real time.

Why a County-Wide Approach Matters

One of the most significant aspects of Cox's campaign is that it distributed books across every school in the county, not just the ones with active parent organizations or higher local funding. In many districts, library quality varies wildly from building to building based on neighborhood wealth. A county-wide campaign sidesteps that inequity by pooling resources and allocating them based on need rather than zip code.

For MLIS students and early-career librarians studying collection development, Cox's work is a case study in what district-level thinking looks like in practice. It combines grant writing, community engagement, administrative negotiation, and an equity framework into a single initiative. These are precisely the skills you learn in an MLS program, applied at scale. The 2026 I Love My Librarian Award, given by the American Library Association, recognized Cox for exactly this kind of systemic impact.¹

Innovation Strategy 3: Reopening a Shuttered Library as a Student Hub for 3,100

In 2024, U.S. schools averaged just 0.4 librarians per building, leaving thousands of libraries dark and unused.¹ At Milpitas High School in California, the library doors were locked when Mia Gittlen arrived. She turned that empty room into a buzzing hub for 3,100 students and 200 staff, earning a 2026 I Love My Librarian Award and a community nomination in the process.

From Closed Doors to Community Hub

Gittlen's case was the most extreme of the three winners: not improving an existing library, but resurrecting a dead one. Before she came on board, the school had no functioning library, no librarian, and no dedicated space for research, reading, or collaboration. Reopening meant tackling every aspect from scratch: re-establishing the position, rebuilding a collection that reflected student needs, redesigning the physical layout to invite groups and quiet study, and launching programs that made the library indispensable overnight.

The Equity Gap of a Shuttered Library

When a school library closes, students lose more than books. They forfeit a trained information professional who can teach research skills, guide critical reading, and provide a safe, inclusive environment. The absence disproportionately harms students who lack home libraries or internet access. Nationally, with only 39,450 full-time school librarians serving 99,297 schools, thousands of campuses operate with this silent equity gap.¹ Gittlen's work shows that reversing that gap starts with one person who can demonstrate the library's value from zero.

What It Takes to Restart

Rebuilding required a mix of advocacy and elbow grease. Gittlen first rallied staff and students around a vision, then curated a relevant, engaging collection through MLIS scholarships and donations. She redesigned the space into flexible zones (group project tables, reading nooks, and tech-ready study areas) so every type of learner could find a reason to walk in. Programming sealed the transformation: book clubs, research workshops, student-led events, and even quiet de-stress sessions made the library a space students claimed as their own. The buzz grew to the point that the community nominated her for the national award, proof that a resurrected hub can quickly become essential.

Proving the Role from Zero

Gittlen's journey is a blueprint for librarians facing a staffing crisis where the very position must be justified. By showing measurable spikes in usage, immediate student buy-in, and faculty collaboration, she proved that a full-time librarian is not a luxury but the engine of a thriving school. For every school without a library today, her story offers a practical, repeatable path from shuttered doors to heart of the campus.

How to Replicate These Strategies: A Step-by-Step Framework

Szeluga, Cox, and Gittlen each followed a recognizable pattern, whether they were building a podcast studio, running a capital campaign, or reopening a shuttered space. The framework below distills their approaches into six actionable steps you can adapt regardless of your school's size or budget. Typical costs range widely: a basic podcast corner runs $1,500 to $3,000, a dedicated small studio $3,000 to $7,500, and a full media suite $7,500 to $15,000. Entry-level makerspaces start around $3,000 to $10,000, while full-featured builds land between $15,000 and $40,000. A single-school collection refresh typically costs $10,000 to $40,000, and a district-wide overhaul like Cox's can reach $50,000 to $250,000.

With only 0.4 school librarians per school nationally and one librarian for every 1,252 students, innovation is not optional for school librarians. It is existential.

Comparing Major School Librarian Awards: I Love My Librarian vs. School Librarian of the Year vs. Others

The I Love My Librarian Award carries a $5,000 prize and stands apart from other major school library honors by accepting nominations from any library user rather than requiring self-nomination or institutional application.¹ Understanding how national and state awards differ in eligibility, prestige, and application complexity helps librarians identify the best fit for their career stage and strengths.

I Love My Librarian Award: Community-Nominated Recognition

Sponsored by the American Library Association, this award is open to any librarian employed at a U.S. library who graduated from an ALA-accredited online MLIS program. Eligibility spans all library types, meaning school librarians compete alongside academic, public, and special librarians. The nomination process requires a library user (a student, parent, colleague, or community member) to submit an online nomination.¹ Winners receive $5,000 and national visibility. The award emphasizes demonstrated impact on individual patrons or communities, making it ideal for librarians with strong local advocacy or transformational projects. Application deadlines are not publicly fixed year-round; the ALA announces nomination windows annually.

AASL National School Library of the Year: Portfolio-Based Excellence

The American Association of School Librarians, in partnership with Follett Content, sponsors this award exclusively for school library programs.² Eligibility requires that the school employ an AASL member librarian. Unlike the I Love My Librarian Award, this honor evaluates the entire library program through an electronic portfolio application rather than personal nomination. The prize is $10,000, the largest cash award among national school library honors, and the deadline is January 1.² This award suits librarians who can document comprehensive program outcomes, collaborative teaching, collection development, and professional leadership through structured evidence.

State and Regional Awards: Pathways for Early-Career Librarians

State associations offer awards with lower barriers to entry and targeted recognition. The Maryland School Librarian of the Year Award, sponsored by the Maryland Association of School Librarians, requires MASL membership, state certification, and at least three years of experience.³ The process involves two stages: initial nomination followed by a full application. Prize amounts are not publicly specified, and prestige is regional rather than national. The 2026 nomination window runs from April 15 to June 19.³ State awards often serve as stepping stones to national recognition, providing portfolio-building experience and peer validation within a smaller candidate pool.

How to Choose the Right Award for Your Profile

Early-career librarians with fewer than five years of experience may find state awards more accessible, while those with transformational single projects and strong community advocates should pursue the I Love My Librarian Award. Librarians leading comprehensive, data-rich programs with robust assessment practices are best positioned for the AASL National School Library of the Year. Consider whether you have a nominator willing to champion your work, whether your program can be documented in portfolio format, and whether your impact is local or replicable at scale. Applying for multiple awards in a single year is common, but tailoring materials to each award's criteria and evaluation philosophy increases success rates.

What Past Award Winners Have in Common: Patterns From 2020–2026

Stand-out school library programs share a tension: they must transform internal practice while staying deeply visible and valued by the community. The innovation that wins national attention is rarely quiet; it is the kind that students, parents, and colleagues actively nominate because they have felt its impact directly. The 2026 I Love My Librarian Award honorees, Christine Szeluga, Jenny Cox, and Mia Gittlen, embody this balance, and their work reflects patterns that have defined award-winning school libraries since 2020.¹

Repeating Themes Across Award Cycles

From 2020 through 2026, the I Love My Librarian Award and the AASL National School Library of the Year have recognized a consistent set of innovation types. Technology integration appears again and again, often in the form of makerspaces, podcast studios, and digital media labs, much like Szeluga's grant-funded podcast and makerspace at Cranford High School. Equity-driven collection development and programming are another pillar: Cox's $400,000 campaign to place 18,000 new books across 18 schools in her county is a direct example of closing access gaps. Community partnerships show up in many forms, from Gittlen's reopening of a shuttered library as a hub for 3,100 students and 200 staff to broader collaborations with local organizations, families, and volunteers. These categories (technology, equity services, partnerships, makerspaces, and collection development) are not silos; the most celebrated programs blend several into a coherent, student-centered vision. Professionals pursuing an online master's in library administration will recognize these competencies as core to the curriculum.

The Role of Community Nomination

A crucial commonality is that the I Love My Librarian Award requires community nomination.² This means the innovation cannot be merely an internal metric or a hidden gem; it must be so visible and so valued that patrons take the time to advocate for it. The 2026 winners were all nominated by people in their communities: students, teachers, and administrators who have directly benefited from the transformed library spaces. For library professionals, this underscores a strategic principle: document and share the library's impact broadly. Build programs that invite participation, and actively tell the story of how the library serves students, families, and staff. Nomination power comes from genuine, felt gratitude, not from self-promotion alone.

Three Actionable Takeaways for Aspiring Awardees

• Anchor innovation in student voice and need: Szeluga's podcast studio and makerspace were driven by what students wanted to create. Cox responded to a countywide literacy crisis. Gittlen filled a void left by a shuttered library. Award-winning projects solve real, identified problems, often surfaced directly by the community.
• Use data to make the case for resources: Cox's successful budget negotiation, raising per-student spending from $17 to $27, relied on cost data from the American Library Association.¹ Concrete numbers build credibility with decision-makers and demonstrate stewardship.
• Design initiatives that are inherently visible and shareable: A podcast studio naturally generates broadcast content. A mass book distribution campaign creates tangible, visible change. Programs that produce artifacts or stories that travel beyond the library walls make community nomination much more likely.
• Prioritize equity and access for underserved groups: The I Love My Librarian Award criteria explicitly honor work that supports the most vulnerable.² Whether it is ensuring all schools in a district have current collections or creating a welcoming hub for every student, demonstrating a commitment to closing gaps is a consistent hallmark of winners.

Across all three 2026 school librarian winners, these patterns converge: technology integration, equity-focused collection work, and community-anchored design led to a level of impact that compelled patrons to nominate them. For MLIS professionals, the award framework serves as a roadmap: build with students, measure with data, and let the community tell your story.

Common Questions About School Library Innovation Awards