Nicolle Davies, executive director of the Arapahoe Library District (ALD) and adjunct faculty at DU’s Morgridge College of Education, was awarded Library Journal’s 2016 Librarian of the Year in January. The American Library Association honored her with this based on her leadership, communication skills, passion and dedication to her libraries’ patrons, and she is the first Coloradan to ever receive the award. Davies runs eight libraries and commits her work to the 250,000 people living in this district.
Librarian of the Year is a title given to one person each year via nomination from other librarians and patrons. The American Library Association then holds a reception to officially recognize the winner, and the Library Journal magazine publishes a story on the person’s accomplishments and successes regarding their involvement in the library. Library Journal’s article for Davies was published in Jan. 2016, and it outlines Davies’s strategy for a successful library, discusses the payoff of her focus on communicating with her staff and patrons and describes ALD’s innovation in technology.
Davies describes that, in addition to being “really excited about where the library district is right now,” the future of ALD is also looking even more hopeful. The ALD team is looking to remodel the system of the space, to further emphasize the senior services because of their large population in the district, to develop an emphasis on teaching both kids and adults coding and programming skills and to further improve the libraries’ advisory services, all while “keeping the focus on the patron first,” as Davies explains.
Davies’s background, what could be considered uncommon for many traditional librarians, began with her working in news. She explains she went into it thinking it was a public service, but soon found that this was not entirely true. After receiving her masters in public administration in addition to library and information science, she eventually found herself where she is now.
“Make sure you have passion around the profession that you choose. I love public libraries—what they stand for, what they represent—and they are one of the last places where there is true equality in the country,” Davies explains. “When you walk through the doors, everyone is treated equally.” She says that she wants to urge young people, especially the students at DU, to first figure out what gets them excited and passionate so that each of them can walk through the door of work every day believing that they chose the right profession.
