{"id":22380,"date":"2026-07-06T17:08:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T17:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/?p=22380"},"modified":"2026-07-06T17:08:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T17:08:13","slug":"announcing-recipients-of-nnlms-2026-arsl-professional-development-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/announcing-recipients-of-nnlms-2026-arsl-professional-development-award\/","title":{"rendered":"Announcing Recipients of NNLM\u2019s 2026 ARSL Professional Development Award"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-22381 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2026\/07\/ARSL_Logo.png\" alt=\"Green and blue tree on a hill with text: ARSL The Association for Rural &amp; Small Libraries\" width=\"130\" height=\"129\" srcset=\"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2026\/07\/ARSL_Logo.png 384w, https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2026\/07\/ARSL_Logo-300x298.png 300w, https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2026\/07\/ARSL_Logo-150x150.png 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 130px) 100vw, 130px\" \/>The Network of the National Library of Medicine\u2019s (NNLM) Training Office and Region 1 are proud to announce the recipients of the Association for Rural &amp; Small Libraries professional development award. Out of a highly competitive pool of applicants from across the United States, twenty outstanding library professionals were selected for their dedication to community service.<\/p>\n<p>Region 5 is proud to say this includes <strong>Hannah Meyer<\/strong> of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kenai.city\/library\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Kenai Community Library<\/a> in Alaska. Congratulations, Hannah!<\/p>\n<p>Additional recipients of this award include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Tanya Alexander<\/strong>, Arab Public Library (Alabama)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Tim Wright<\/strong>, Edmondson Memorial Library (Mississippi)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Arlisa Harris<\/strong>, Forrest City Public Library (Arkansas)<\/li>\n<li><strong>John Henning Jr.<\/strong>, Kingman Carnegie Library (Kansas)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Jessie Hoag<\/strong>, Toronto Public Library (Kansas)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Rebecca Williams<\/strong>, Broken Bow Public Library (Oklahoma)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Dennis Andrejko<\/strong>, Wilkinson Public Library (Colorado)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Becky Newton<\/strong>, Maroa Public Library District (Illinois)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Nancy Ramirez<\/strong>, Le Mars Public Library (Iowa)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Gisi Vella<\/strong>, Morton Memorial Library (New York)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Margaret Woodruff<\/strong>, Charlotte Library (Vermont)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Anna Louise Kallas<\/strong>, Jackson County Public Library (Kentucky)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Ashley Wagers<\/strong>, Shepard-Pruden Memorial Library (North Carolina)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Nikki Hancock<\/strong>, Corbin Public Library (Kentucky)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Katie Tyson<\/strong>, Logan County Public Library (Kentucky)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Kristin Smith<\/strong>, Scottdale Public Library (Pennsylvania)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Monica Edwards<\/strong>, William B. Harlan Memorial Library (Kentucky)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Raina Birchfiled-Ford<\/strong>, Wolfe County Public Library (Kentucky)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Rusteen Dowling-Hughes<\/strong>, Clinton County Public Library (Kentucky)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The award covers travel expenses and conference registration, ensuring that awardees can bring valuable insights back to their communities. Recipients will also participate in a pre-conference training session, <em>Healthy Roots, Strong Communities: Health Information Resources and Programming<\/em>. This specialized workshop allows recipients to earn continuing education credits toward a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nnlm.gov\/training\/specialization\/consumer-health-information-specialization\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Consumer Health Information Specialization (CHIS)<\/a>, equipping them with certified skills to help patrons find and navigate trustworthy medical and public health resources.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are thrilled to provide this award to rural and small libraries, which play a vital role in connecting their communities with trusted health information. By supporting attendance at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arsl.org\/2026-conference\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ARSL Conference<\/a>, we hope participants will gain new knowledge, skills, and connections that strengthen their ability to help patrons access reliable health information and ultimately improve the health and well-being of their communities,\u201d said Jessi Van Der Volgen, Assistant Director of NNLM\u2019s Training Office<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Network of the National Library of Medicine\u2019s (NNLM) Training Office and Region 1 are proud to announce the recipients of the Association for Rural &amp; Small Libraries professional development award. Out of a highly competitive pool of applicants from across the United States, twenty outstanding library professionals were selected for their dedication to community&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/announcing-recipients-of-nnlms-2026-arsl-professional-development-award\/\">Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[316,320,13,324,58,11],"tags":[243,30,191,155],"class_list":["post-22380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-consumer-health","category-education","category-funding","category-library-staff","category-news-from-nnlm","category-public-libraries","tag-consumer-health-information-specialization","tag-funding","tag-professional-development","tag-public-libraries"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22380"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22380\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22388,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22380\/revisions\/22388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}