The Julie Klauber Award is one way we at Keystone Systems recognize the invaluable support that volunteers and staff provide to their organizations and their patrons. Each organization may nominate one staff member or volunteer using the nomination form at the bottom of this article. The deadline for nominations is end of business Friday, January 24. The selected 2025 Julie Klauber Award Honoree will receive a trip to the 2025 KLAS Users' Conference to be held in Indianapolis, IN, March 17-20. More information about the award, nomination and selection process, etc, is below.
Who was Julie Klauber?
Julie Klauber was a national expert and leader on disability issues and was instrumental in helping develop Keystone's growing national presence. In 2012, Julie received the ASCLA Francis Joseph Campbell Award recognizing her work advancing library services for patrons who are blind and print disabled. Julie served as the director of the Talking Books Plus Library in Suffolk, County, NY and authored several articles on library resources and services for people with disabilities. Additionally, she created and maintained the newsletter Disability Resources Monthly and the corresponding website www.disabilityresources.org. Julie passed away on September 3, 2002 after a long, brave struggle with cancer.
A word about Julie Klauber from her former coworker:
Valerie Lewis sent the below email to the KLASUsers listserv in January, 2011:
It has been more than eight years since Julie passed away. Her name comes up every day.....truly, it does. I work with 5 other people who worked with Julie for many years. I sit in the office that was once hers. Her husband and sons are often in my home. I work with her husband Avery, to continue the important work that she and he started many years before I was lucky enough to meet them.
Julie was a librarian, but more she was the truest advocate for access to library programs, services and materials for all, particularly people with disabilities.
In addition to being the librarian for the sub-regional library that served Long Island, NY, Julie and her husband established a non-profit organization that provided information and referral resources for librarians, service providers and individuals living with disabilities.......long before and into the earlier days....of the internet.
Julie spent truly all of her time making sure that people with disabilities had access to information.....all information. She created partnerships with local and national corporations that brought assistive technology to local libraries. She created library resources in alternative formats and worked with libraries and librarians across the country, to promote accessible library services.
It has been my honor to be a member of the Julie Klauber Award Committee. It has given me the opportunity to read about lbph staff and volunteers who create new and innovative ways of making library materials, services and programs accessible to their patrons. Something still so difficult to do, even in these technologically advanced times.
You may think that the daily practices and procedures of operating a library for the blind and physically disabled are hum-drum and nothing out of the ordinary, but think again. It is through the work and creativity of each and every member or your organization, that people with disabilities have access to information....something we treasure so dearly and take so for granted.
On that note, we encourage you to think about how the wheels of your organization turn and who are the people turning it.
With warm regards,
Valerie Lewis, Director
Long Island Talking Book Library
Who can be nominated for the Julie Klauber Award?
Each KLAS library or organization may nominate one staff member or volunteer who:
- Works with KLAS in their daily job functions.
- Has demonstrated outstanding service to their organization and / or their community in the spirit of Julie Klauber during their time with the library.
- Will appreciate and benefit from attending the KLAS Users' Conference.
Please use the below form to submit your nominee's info before end of business Friday, January 24.
What does the award recipient receive and how are they selected?
The selected Julie Klauber Award Recipient receives a trip to the 2025 KLAS Users' Conference to be held in Indianapolis, IN, March 17-20 and will be will be honored as part of an award ceremony held during the conference's opening general session the afternoon of Monday, March 17 including receiving a personalized plaque to commemorate their achievement. The trip includes one round-trip coach ticket on Delta Airlines from the recipient's nearby major city to an airport near the conference location and hotel expenses for a single occupancy for March 17-20. Conference registration fees are covered by Keystone Systems, Inc. and meals are provided by the conference. If the recipient needs / desires a travel companion, such a person may be accommodated at Keystone CEO James Burts' discretion.
Award finalists will be selected from all nominated individuals by the 2025 Julie Klauber Award Committee including:
- Teresa Kalber, Colorado Talking Book Library, 2011 Julie Klauber Award Recipient
- Lisa Nelson, Utah State Library Program for the Blind and Disabled
- Pepper Watson, Oklahoma Library for the Blind, Accessible Instructional Materials Center
- Erin Pawlus, Arizona Talking Book Library
- James Gleason, Perkins Braille and Talking Book Library
- Andrea Ewing Callicutt, Keystone Systems, Inc.
James Burts, CEO of Keystone Systems, will then determine the 2025 recipient after consulting with all the finalists' supervisors.
Biographies of previous Julie Klauber Award Recipients are available at the Julie Klauber Award Winners page.
