Shelley Walchak, director of Pine River Library in Bayfield, is receiving the 2019 Career Achievement Award after 36 years of library service.
The Colorado Association of Libraries informed the Pine River Library staff in early July that Walchak would be honored with the award at the CAL Conference in Loveland, Sept. 19 and 20. Library staff members nominated Walchak and collected letters of support from community members and librarians around the state.
“Library leaders usually aren’t who people think they are. Shelley blasts away the stereotype of the librarian in a bun shushing people,” said Katherine Weadley, chairwoman of the CAL Awards Committee. “Regardless of her position, and I can think of a few, she’s always provided the leadership of bringing unusual groups together.”
The career achievement award is all about celebrating accomplishments and serving as an example to others, Weadley said. The CAL Award Committee acknowledges a Colorado librarian who has made significant contributions to the field and impacted employees and library users. The committee also looks for candidates who uphold librarianship principles, for example giving community members access to information regardless of age, ability or socioeconomic status.
“She meets every one of those requirements and exceeds them, but also, we have just seen how she’s greatly impacted our library, our school and our community,” said Brenda Marshall, assistant director of the library.
In her career, Walchak facilitated partnerships between different groups, like Music in the Mountains, the Bayfield Lions Club, and Boys & Girls Club of La Plata County. She worked with the Bayfield town government to receive a Great Outdoors Grant that helped fund a new community park. She has served as a consultant for the Colorado Library Consortium, Colorado chapter councilor to the American Library Association and senior consultant for the Colorado State Library.
“Shelley Walchak exemplifies professionalism and is more than worthy of the recognition for Lifetime Career Achievement,” wrote Chris La May, Bayfield town manager, in a letter to the CAL committee.
smullane@durangoherald.com
