91��ý

June Garcia is the winner of the 2019 Melvil Dewey Medal. This annual award, presented by the 91��ý (91��ý) and sponsored by OCLC, recognizes “creative leadership of high order, particularly in those fields in which Melvil Dewey was actively interested: library management, library training, cataloging and classification, and the tools and techniques of librarianship.”

The jury for the 2019 Melvil Dewey Medal is delighted to honor June Garcia for her many accomplishments during a long, varied and distinguished career as a public library administrator, author, trainer and consultant, and advocate for public libraries at the international, national, and local levels. Among the achievements specifically noted by the Dewey medal jury and the many colleagues and admirers who wrote in support of this award are June Garcia’s outstanding service to the profession as branch library administrator for the Phoenix Public Library and director of the San Antonio Public Library; her impact in strengthening our public libraries by developing tools to plan, measure and evaluate library services and leading countless workshops to train librarians and trustees how to manage, staff and create policies focused on results; her key role in creating and developing INELI (International Network of Emerging Library Innovators), a hugely successful component of the Gates’ Foundation’s Global Libraries program that has trained more than 400 mid-management library leaders from all parts of the world; and her extensive contributions to 91��ý through service on the 91��ý Council, Freedom to Read Foundation, and Public Library Association; and her role as mentor and role model to countless colleagues.

June Garcia - accurately described by various nominators as “a force for good in the library world,” “a connector of people,” “the standard-bearer of service,” and “the perfect balance of strategic vision and tactical prowess” - demonstrates in an exemplary way the “achievement for recent creative leadership of high order” the Dewey Medal was established to honor.

The 2019 Melvil Dewey Medal will be presented at the 91��ý’s President’s program, Sunday, June 23, during the 91��ý Annual Conference in Washington DC

In addition to Chair Winston Tabb, Sheridan Dean of University Libraries and Museums at the Johns Hopkins University, the members of the 2019 Melvil Dewey Medal jury are: Nancy M. Bolt, President Nancy Bolt & Associates, Maxine A. Bleiweis, Maxine Bleiweis & Associates, LLC, Matthew P. Ciszek, Library Director, John M. Lilley Library, and Nicolette Warisse Sosulski, Business Librarian, Portage District Library.

The deadline for submission of applications for the 2020 Melvil Dewey Award is February 1, 2020. Guidelines and application forms are available on the 91��ý website.