A Montana State University librarian won a prestigious national award last month.
Mary Anne Hansen is one of ten nationally recognized librarians to receive the “I Love My Librarian Award”.
She was nominated by four of her colleagues and was selected among nearly 2,000 librarians across the state.
“I would describe Mary Anne as a pillar of this library. And of the library community across the state,” said Kenning Arlitsch, dean of the Montana State University Library.
Hansen graduated from MSU in education and worked at the library as an undergraduate student.
She later got her masters degree in library science, which led her to become a full-time faculty member of the university.
Twenty four years later, she’s still a true Bobcat and passionate about her work.
“My passion is getting to dig into individual students and faculty’s research projects, and helping them they get the sources they need,” said Hansen.
“She does an enormous amount of instruction, she does an enormous amount of outreach throughout the community, and she’s just is very passionate about the work that she does,” said Artlitsch.
One of Hansen’s favorite parts of the job is coordinating the library’s annual Tribal College Librarians Institute.
“So I get to work with tribal college librarians from across the state and across the nation, and even Canada and sometimes Australia and New Zealand, so that’s a really great outreach effort that I get to be involved in,” said Hansen.
Hansen received the I Love My Librarian award last month, and was recognized and commended for her work expanding resources for tribal college libraries.
Hansen is also the president of the Montana Library Association.
