SOUTH OTSELIC - Otselic Valley Central School librarian Catalina "Katy" Charles has been named School Librarian of the Year by the New York Library Association, a statewide honor recognizing a rural library program that outgrew its own walls.

When notified that she had been chosen as the School Librarian of the Year, Charles said she felt honored and grateful to be recognized for the work that she loves doing each day. She will be celebrated at the NYLA’s Inaugural Reception, to be held at NYLA Annual Conference in Saratoga on the evening of Friday, November 6.

The Otselic Valley Public Library operates in a unique way: it is inside the school building, staffed by Charles as library manager and Amy Guernsey as library clerk, but it offers computer and internet access, technology training, programming for all ages, and local history and genealogy resources to both students and the public.

"I have always believed that a library is so much more than a room filled with books," she said. "It is a place where students can discover who they are, explore new ideas, create, take risks, ask questions, and know that they belong. I'm especially proud that our library has grown beyond the walls of the school to serve our entire community."

That work has reshaped what a library means in a district of roughly 300 students spread across some of Chenango County's hill country. In May 2023, district voters approved a proposition converting a once-weekly open library into a chartered public library operating 20 to 25 hours a week, housed inside the school and governed by an elected board of trustees. The change brought Otselic Valley into the Four County Library System, opening access to nearly 500,000 volumes across 45 member libraries in Broome, Chenango, Delaware and Otsego counties, along with ebooks and audiobooks through Libby.

"In a small rural community, libraries can play an especially important role," Charles said. "They provide access not only to books, but to technology, programs, experiences, resources, and perhaps most importantly, connections with each other."

She credited colleagues, administrators, library staff, trustees and neighbors who, as she put it, "have been willing to say yes to some of my ideas, even the unusual ones."

Her students, she said, are the reason the ideas keep coming.

"They are the reason I continue to look for new ways to make our library a place where they are excited to walk through the door," Charles said. "They inspire me every day to keep learning, experimenting, and imagining what a school library can become."

"To be recognized by my fellow library professionals for work that means so much to me is something I will never forget.”

- Information from Otselic Valley Central School