HARTFORD – Hartford Public Library announces Kellie Willis of St. Louis, MO as the 2020 recipient of the Caroline M. Hewins Scholarship, given to promising library school students who intend to become children’s librarians.
Kellie works for the St. Louis County Library system as a Youth Services Specialist and is a member of the Black Caucus of the American Library Association.
“I am impressed by Kellie’s commitment to children’s library service and hope she continues to follow this path. As a former children’s librarian, I know how rewarding this area of librarianship can be. She is certainly off to a great start,” said Bridget Quinn-Carey, HPL’s president and CEO.
“Kellie’s passion for her community and her ability to recognize the many roles a children’s librarian can play in the life of a child made her application stand out. I have no doubt she will be a leader in the field of librarianship,” said Marie Jarry, HPL’s director of public services.
Willis is a native of St. Louis, MO and is the Youth Services Specialist at the Natural Bridge Branch of the St. Louis County Library. Kellie is an MLIS student at the University of Missouri-Columbia with a focus on Library Services to children and teens. She loves when the kids at her branch call her the “Library Lady”! Kellie is a member of Missouri Library Association and Black Caucus of American Library Association. A proud AmeriCorps alum, Kellie’s interests include the ways that Libraries are actively working for more just and inclusive communities and #ownvoices children’s literature.
“My desire is for children in under-resourced communities like my own to see a librarian who looks like them, who advocates for them, and who connects them to library materials and programs that speak to their experiences,” Willis said.
The Caroline M. Hewins Scholarship Fund was established in 1926 as a tribute to one of the great pioneers in American Librarianship in special recognition of her creative work for children throughout the country.
The Fund originated by the Hartford Librarian’s Club as a personal gift to Miss Hewins on the occasion of her fiftieth anniversary as Librarian of the Hartford Public Library. When Miss Hewins chose to use this gift as a basis for a scholarship award, generous contributions were received from family and friends and professional associates throughout Connecticut and the United States, thus assuring to the Scholarship a national character in keeping with the memory of the Librarian it honors.
The scholarship is open to those who plan to specialize in library work with children: who have received, or are about to receive a four-year undergraduate degree; and who have applied for admission to a library school or are already attending a library school accredited by the American Library Association.
For more information about the scholarship, visit https://www.hplct.org/about/caroline-m-hewins-scholarship.
