Two
California librarians, one at
Santa Monica Public Library and the other at Los
Angeles Public Library, are among 27 librarians
from 13 states who were selected to receive $2,500
awards from The New York Times. Sylvia Anderle, a
children’s and Latino outreach librarian at
Santa Monica Public’s Fairview Branch, and Katie
Rao, a young-adult librarian at L.A. Public’s
Pio Pico Koreatown Branch, won the awards for
excellence of service. They received their awards
at a ceremony in New York City on November 16.
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New
York Times honoree Sylvia Anderle, Santa
Monica Public Library.
- Photo courtesy Santa Monica Seascape
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Anderle
decided to go into library work after rearing a
family. She earned her master’s degree in
librarianship at Long Island University in New
York. She and her husband moved to California in
1989, and she joined the staff of Santa Monica
Public Library that same year.
In
1991 Anderle introduced Spanish-language story
times at the Fairview Branch library. These
continue to be enthusiastically attended by
Spanish-speaking and non-Spanish-speaking
families. In August 2005 she completed her
eleventh year of offering a summer reading
tutorial for children in grades two through five
who are performing below grade level. The majority
of these children come from homes in which Spanish
is the dominant language. The tutorial has
extended into the school year, and Anderle
actively recruits, trains, and places tutors with
children. As an outreach librarian she also works
with local Head Start programs and serves as their
distribution coordinator for Reading Is
Fundamental.
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New
York Times honoree Katie Rao, Pio Pico
Koreatown Library.
- Photo courtesy Katie Rao
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Susan
Annett, a librarian at Santa Monica Public’s
main branch, writing to nominate Anderle for the
award, said that thanks to this one librarian, the
Fairview Branch is considered by many to be Santa
Monica’s most “family-friendly” branch. “To
see how Sylvia welcomes children and caregivers to
her programs…is to see a great librarian in
action.”
Katie
Rao earned her master’s at Dominican University
in Chicago four years ago. She and her husband
moved to California so that he could enter the
medical residency program at UCLA Medical Center.
She has been working at the Koreatown Branch of
Los Angeles Public Library for two and a half
years, organizing a variety of programs for
students at the junior high and high school
levels. She works with a teen advisory group and
organizes summer reading programs for teens. She
led one group of teens through a pinhole camera
project in which the youth “made” cameras
on-site last summer. During the school year she
provides three activities per month for teens.
During the summer there is one activity per week.
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