Penfield Library Director Sarah Weisman and librarians Kathryn Johns-Masten and Deborah Bauder congratulate Awa Dembele for winning SUNY Oswego’s 2021 Northern New York Library Network Outstanding Student Employee award.
Awa Dembele, a Peer Reference Assistant at Penfield Library, has been selected to receive SUNY Oswego’s 2021 Northern New York Library Network Outstanding Student Employee award.
A criminal justice and sociology major, Dembele will start her senior year in fall 2021, and has been a Penfield employee for two years. Dembele was selected because she demonstrates a high level of service and professionalism in support of Penfield Library's Research Help Desk Services.
Dembele was nominated by her supervisor, Deborah Bauder, Penfield Library’s research, instruction and outreach librarian.
"Awa is an outstanding all-around student and role model," Bauder said. "She has a great attitude and is an organized and effective student researcher. In her role as a Peer Reference Assistant at the library, she shares her skills and positivity with fellow students and helps empower them to become better researchers themselves. She demonstrates confidence, curiosity, and integrity in everything that she does.”
The Northern New York Library Network’s Outstanding Student Employee Award recognizes student workers who exhibit outstanding patron service skills and colleague interactions; demonstrate responsibility through professionalism and work performance; exhibit strong leadership among peers; and show interest and initiative in the library profession. Penfield Library is a member of the Northern New York Library Network, a regional multi-type library agency primarily dedicated to cooperatively providing support and services necessary for all of its members to meet their individual goals. NNYLN serves libraries in the seven counties of Northern New York for the ultimate benefit of the library user.
Penfield librarians and staff had an opportunity to nominate student employees who exemplify the standards of service and professionalism that make them role models for all student workers in libraries. An internal Penfield Library committee evaluated and ranked all submitted nominations. The committee selected Dembele to receive the award from a field of numerous deserving nominees.
For more information, contact Sarah Weisman, Penfield Library director, at sarah.weisman@oswego.edu or315-312-3557.