Any official YALSA group or an individual volunteering for YALSA in an official YALSA capacity is eligible for this recognition. This award was first given in 2013. The recognition includes a one year membership to YALSA and a commemorative certificate for each category's winner(s).
The YALSA Volunteer of the Year Awards acknowledge the contributions of YALSA members who have demonstrated outstanding service to the mission, goals and work of YALSA during a given service year.
Awards are given out in the following categories (where applicable):
- Chair/Team Lead: leadership of a YALSA advisory board, blogging team, committee, jury, resource retreat, or task force
- Individual Member: contributions of an individual member who has volunteered for YALSA in an official capacity, such as serving on an appointed group, staffing a YALSA exhibit booth, writing for a publication or blog, etc.
- Group: work conducted as a whole by an advisory board, blogging team, committee, jury, resource retreat, or task force
Application & Deadline
Nominate yourself, a group or an individual by submitting the online form by December 1.
Previous Winners
- Individual member: Gregory Lum, individual YALSA member
- Chair: Molly Dettmann, Coordinator of YALSA’s 2021 Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers Blogging Team
- Group: The 2019 Outstanding Books for the College Bound Committee: Yolanda Hood, chair, University of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown, PEI, Canada; Donna Steel Cook, Central ISD, Pollok, Texas; Kelsey Hughes, South Bowie Branch, Prince George's County Memorial Library System, Bowie, MD; Jane Nichols, Oregon State University Libraries and Press, Corvallis, OR; Jennifer Powell, Tarrant High School, Tarrant, AL. Jamie Watson, Baltimore County Public Library, Towson, MD.
- Individual member: Tegan Beese
- Chair: Tina Lerno, Chair of YALSA’s Great Graphic Novels Blogging Team Committee
- Group: The Michael L. Printz 2020 Award Committee; Chair Kim Keown Farnsworth, Sacramento (Calif.) Public Library; Tegan Beese, Lake Villa District Library, Lindenhurst, Ill.; Connie Poulsen-Hollin, Guernsey-Sunrise Schools, Guernsey, Wyo.; Elisa A. Garcia, Bronx (N.Y.) Library Center; Kay Hones, Civic Center Secondary, San Francisco; Connie Lin, San Francisco Public Library; Jenny Zbrizher, Maplewood (N.J.) Memorial Library; Stacey Shapiro, Cranford (N.J.) Public Library; Cameron Riesenberger, Pikes Peak Library District, Colorado Springs, Colo.; administrative assistant Suzanne Clerkin, Solano County Library, Fairfield, Calif.;
Individual member: Adrienne Strock
- Individual member: Molly Wetta; 2016-2017 The Hub member manager
- Chair: Angela Carstensen; Chair of the 2018 Printz Award Committee
- Group: 2017 Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Readers Blogging Team:
- Dana Hutchins, Coordinator
- Jenny Zbrizher
- Jodeana Kruse
- Jessica Ormonde
- Kay Hones
- Lisa Krok
- Laura Lehner
- Karen Lemmons
- Allison Stevens
- Carrie Richmond
- Individual member: Dawn McMillan, member of the 2016 YALSA Symposium Marketing and Planning Taskforce
- Chair: Traci Glass, Chair of the Great Graphic Novels for Teens
- Group: 2016 Margaret Edwards Award Committee (Chair Valerie D. Davis, Campbell (Ky.) County Public Library; Dr. Joni Richards Bodart, San Jose (Calif.) State University School of Information; Elizabeth A. Burns, New Jersey State Library, Talking Book & Braille Center, Trenton, N.J.; Jose M. Ocasio, LaPlace (La.) St. John the Baptist Parish Library; Diane P. Tuccillo, Fort Collins (Colo.) Poudre River Public Library District).
- Individual member: Melanie Wachsmann, administrative assistant of the Amazing Audiobooks Committee
- Chair: Tara Smith, Chair of the Publications Advisory Board
- Individual member: Sarah Hashimoto, member of Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults
- Chair: Robin Fogle Kurz, Chair of the 2015 William C. Morris Award Committee.
- Individual member: Kellie Tilton, administrative assistant of the Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers committee
- Individual Member: Gretchen Kolderup (Member Manager for The Hub)
- Group: 2012 YA Lit Symposium Planning Taskforce (Kate Pickett, chair, Johnson County Library, Shawnee Mission, KS; Hannah Berry, Aurora Public Library, Aurora, IL; Patricia Ann Carleton, Saint Louis Public Library, Saint Louis, MO; Carolyn A. Dietz, Saint Louis Public Library, Saint Louis, MO; Carla Riemer; and Tom E. Spicer, Arlington Heights Memorial Library, Arlington Heights, IL)