State Librarian, Linda Lord, Honored with MDF's Champion Award for Education, Training, and Leadership Development

Linda Lord has received the Maine Development Foundation's (MDF) Champion Award for Education, Training, and Leadership Development. She was honored at MDF's Annual Meeting on Friday, September 20 in Bangor.

The Champion Award for Education, Training, and Leadership Development honors an individual or organization that has gone above and beyond in their efforts to spark Maine?s economy by their demonstrated leadership and investment in helping all Maine people reach their highest personal potential.

Ms. Lord has demonstrated the ability to collaborate and create partnerships, a high professional standard that serves as a model and inspiration to others, and demonstrated innovative ideas and approaches to advancing education, training, and leadership development. Her work is changing the face of Maine.

Specifically, Ms. Lord earned this award for her outstanding efforts in building opportunities between education, training and the work of our public libraries. She is an out of the box thinker, and team builder who is relentless in her enthusiasm in building capacity for learning. Linda is a 5th generation Mainer who has focused her long career on education and libraries.

Prior to joining the Maine State Library staff, Linda worked for the Maine Department of Education from 1992-1999, concluding her career there as Instructional Technology Coordinator. She was active in the formation of the Maine School and Library Network which connects each Maine school and library to the Internet. Her work with the Maine Digital Summit Planning Committee culminated in a successful federal Broadband Technology Opportunity Program grant of $1.3 million, which brought over 500 computers and technology training to over 100 public libraries and included 14 libraries receiving video conferencing equipment.

Currently the Chair of the American Library Association E-rate Task Force, she testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation at the invitation of its Chairperson, Senator Rockefeller. She is a member of the American Library Association, Office of Information Technology Policy Subcommittee on Telecommunications, and serves on the Maine ConnectMe Advisory Board.

As State Librarian, Linda also serves on the NetworkMaine Council. Her work has created partnerships with the State Library and the Department of Labor, other state cultural agencies, the University of Maine System, the Department of Education, and other state agencies; and new legislatively-approved voluntary check-off on the Maine State Income Tax Form for the Maine Public Libraries Fund.

Her greatest pride, however, is the outstanding staff at the Maine State Library who have made so much of the above possible. Linda is a graduate of the Tau class of Leadership Maine and lives in Brooks with her husband.