Irving Nelson is Reader To Reader's Librarian of the Year

We are pleased to honor Navajo Nation Library Program Supervisor Irving Nelson as Reader To Reader’s Librarian of the Year for 2010.

Mr. Nelson was chosen from the over 500 librarians that participate in the Reader To Reader program for his outstanding service to the residents of the Navajo Nation.

Based in Window Rock, Arizona, Nelson oversees the Navajo Nation Library’s 61,000+ book collection that serves as the primary book resources for an area that covers 27,000 square miles.

Nelson began working at the library in 1978 as the bookmobile driver and over the past 30 years has built an important Native American collection that includes 11,000 books, oral-history tapes and tribal land-claims records that date all the way back to 1675.

“Irving Nelson is an extraordinary individual,” notes Reader To Reader executive director, David Mazor. “This past November he personally flew to Reader To Reader’s headquarters in Massachusetts to drive a truck filled with 10,000 books and 10 computers collected in the Navajo Nation Library book drive back to Window Rock, Arizona. He plans to do it all over again this spring. His dedication to his library and the citizens that use it is unsurpassed. We are so pleased to be able to honor him with our Librarian of the Year award, which he richly deserves.”