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Love For Pasco Librarian Goes Beyond Borders

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By MEGAN HUSSEY

Tribune correspondent

Published: December 27, 2008

Selected from a pool of 3,200 applicants, Pasco County Libraries director Linda Allen was one of 10 librarians nationwide to win this year's Carnegie Corp. of New York/New York Times I Love My Librarian Award.

"It's a very humbling experience. I'm being given an award for what I love to do," said Allen, a New Port Richey resident. "I feel like I should give an award to someone else for letting me do this."

According to Allen, a record of community service was the chief criteria for this award.

"They were looking for service to the community and innovation," she said. "They're looking for people who are making a difference in their community."

Allen began her service to the community more than 20 years ago, when she helped establish and modernize the Pasco County Library System. She trained each member of the system's original public service staff; established the library's support services, cataloguing, processing and ordering systems; and set up its acquisitions department and delivery system. And, in time, she established an Internet component to the Pasco County Library System.

"I thought I'd stay here long enough to get the system off the ground," she said. "Then I fell in love with Pasco County and never left."

The Pasco County Library System's Friends of the Library group nominated Allen for the award, a collaborative effort of The New York Times, the American Library Association and Carnegie Corp. of New York.

"They submitted an application online without my knowing," she said. "When the award committee called and asked for further information, my secretary Denise Vanacore worked with the Friends to field additional questions."

Allen and Pasco Libraries administrative services manager Cindy Boda joined the group of 10 award winners at a ceremony and reception hosted by The New York Times on Dec. 8 at The Times Center in New York. She joined the other winners in accepting their awards and giving brief speeches at the reception, where she met Vartan Gregorian, president of Carnegie Corp. of New York; Janet L. Robinson, president and chief executive officer of The New York Times Co.; and American Library Association president Jim Rettig.

"Vartan Gregorian and Janet Robinson are both members of the New York Public Library Board," said Allen. "They're very in tune to what's going on in libraries across the country."

Allen's award caps off what Pasco County Library System's public relations specialist Linda Bragg calls "a banner year" for the system. Earlier this year, the system won a Library of the Year honor from the Florida Library Association.

"Both awards recognized the Pasco County Library System, under the direction of Ms. Allen, for its excellence and innovation in programming, such as Pasco County's original Battle of the Bands; E-government services; and its commitment to enriching the lives of all citizens of Pasco County," Bragg said in a news release.

Also this year, the library system became one of two libraries in Florida to offer two Adaptive Toy Collections for physically challenged children, donated through the Friends of the Library.

The award also marks another career milestone for Allen, who according to Bragg deserves the honor.

"We all have known for a long time what Linda does for us at the library," she said. "Now we have confirmation from someone else. We're so proud of her."

Allen earned an undergraduate degree in education and a master's degree in library science from the Peabody College of Library Science in Nashville, Tenn. She also completed post-graduate work in technology at Sullivan's Junior College in Nashville.

She worked at the Louisville Free Public Library in Kentucky before coming to Florida in 1984. She worked in the Palm Beach County Public Library System before moving to Pasco in 1987.

"I feel that here I've seen the change in the concept of librarianship," she said.

For information about the Pasco County Library System, call (727) 861-3020.

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