The LIS Program is pleased to announce that Lori Misaka is the Fall 2022 recipient of the Robert and Rita Blair Memorial Award. This coveted award is presented to graduating students who show special promise in providing library services to children and youth. The LIS faculty select awardees based on high academic standing and strong evidence of professional leadership.
Lori is finishing her Master of Library and Information Science (MLISc) degree this December but already is putting her passion for youth library services to practice at the Waipahu Intermediate School library. She came to the LIS Program with a strong educational background and dedicated teacher for the English Learner program at Waipahu High School. While in the LIS Program she completed an internship at the ‘Aiea Public Library and served on the Hawai‘i State Department of Education Multilingualism Policy Advisory Committee. She has also been an active member in the ALA Hawai‘i Student Chapter, Asian Pacific American Librarians Association, and the Hawai‘i Association of School Librarians. With a team of LIS students and HASL, Lori co-organized a National Library Week event that raised over $5K to support school librarianship.
In awarding Lori, the faculty expressed that she is a positive team player who is grounded in local and international ways of thinking, and is always looking for ways that libraries can adapt to meet the needs of her community.