2009 Emerson Greenaway Award application form

Greenaway Award Acknowledges Great Librarians

Melody Allen is 2008 Recipient

The New England Library Association and its Greenaway Committee is excited and delighted to announce this year’s recipient of the Emerson Greenaway Award for distinguished service to the library community in New England will be given to Melody Allen. For the past 29 years, Melody has worked for the Rhode Island Office of Library and Information Services. During her tenure at OLIS, she has performed the role of a consummate professional as consultant, advisor and mentor to the Children’s Services community.

She has provided leadership to a generation of librarians throughout the region who will carry forward her standards of professionalism and collaboration. She has contributed not only to the field of librarianship in Rhode Island but also in New England and nationally as well. Melody has nurtured a community with librarians and other professionals across New England and the United States that have brought about truly remarkable programs and services for children.

Melody has been active in NERTCL (the New England Roundtable of Teen and Children’s Librarians) where she served as Chair (president), RI state representative and advisor. She also served on the NELA conference committee. This year she was chosen to be a mentor at NELLS. She has been active in ALA and ALSC serving on the Caldecott Award Committee, the Siebert Award Committee, Preschool Services and Parent Education Committee, the National Reading Committee as well as other committees that have had a positive influence on children’s services both locally and nationally. Melody has also served on the Globe-Horn Book Awards Committee.

On the local level, Melody has been active in the Rhode Island Library Association, where she served on a variety of committees over the years. This June she received RILA’s Life Time Achievement Award.

The Emerson Greenaway Award will be presented to Melody on Sunday night October 19, 2008 at the banquet at NELA’s annual conference in Manchester NH.

Congratulations Melody! What a distinguished career and a well earned honor.

Established by the New England Library Association in 1988, the award honors Emerson Greenaway, an innovator in library organization and practice in the 1940's and 1950's. Mr. Greenaway received the first award, and subsequent recipients include Eleanor Hashem, Donald Vincent, Ann Flowers, Richard Olsen, Ching-Chi-Chen, Liz Futas, Anne Reynolds, Patricia Klinck, Marshall Keyes, Margo Crist, Kris Kardokas, Shirley Adamovich, Nolan Lushington, and Lucy Gangone, and now Melody Allen.

Nominees must be, or have been, members of NELA. She or he should have made a major contribution to the field of librarianship in New England, such as:

• Development of outstanding services in a field of expertise, such as administration, reference services, technical services, etc.
• Involvement with developing library cooperation in New England
• Outstanding leadership in the field.

The 2006 Greenaway Award was presented to Lucy Gangone at the annual conference in Burlington, VT, on October 22, 2006.