Community / Librarian with ‘huge sense of fun’ nominated for national award
A SHETLAND librarian says being shortlisted for a national award has come as a “huge surprise”.
Catherine Jeromson is up for the 2020 library and information professional of the year award from the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland.
She is a support services librarian based in Shetland Library in Lerwick.
Catherine has been described as an “exemplary professional who has a huge sense of fun”.
Her nomination highlights her improvements to the mobile library, and services for the visually impaired.
Her work with the library’s Twitter account – which has received widespread attention, partly due to some light-hearted banter with Orkney Library – is also noted.
Catherine said it was a “huge surprise” to be nominated for the award.
“To have recognition for doing a job that I love is really special,” she said.
“Working for the library is rewarding in itself – I work with a great team of people who really go the extra mile to provide the best possible service to our community.”
She said she was “very proud” of how the library has managed to provide alternative services during lockdown to cater for customers.
“Everyone has worked so hard to keep the library service an important part of our community during these challenging times,” Catherine added.
“The nomination describes me as bringing a sense of fun to the role and I think that is key because libraries are fun and sociable places to be and I want to share that.
“One of my favourite achievements has been building Shetland Library’s Twitter following. I remember the excitement when we reached 100 followers, and now we have over 18,600 followers from all over the world.
“We’ve had people travelling from Australia just to visit the Library because they follow us on Twitter, which is surreal. We’ve also had some memorable spats with Orkney Library. All in good fun!”
The shortlist for the award is made up of four nominees.
Judging will take place by a panel of experts, with the winner announced in October.
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