A 17-year veteran with the Volusia County Public Library (VCPL), Dahlquist was promoted through every paraprofessional classification in just over three years. She is now a library associate, and her work is so respected that her fellow staffers, including the librarians, named her VCPL’s “Unsung Hero” and presented her with their Customer Service Award as well.

Because of the range of her duties, her creative initiatives to improve library service, her teamwork, and her model efforts to help library users, Linda Dahlquist is LJ’s 2012 Paralibrarian of the Year, an award sponsored by DEMCO, Inc.