Page 15 - BCALA Summer 2018

Colorado Librarian honored at PLA Awards Breakfast at ALA Conference in New Orleans
BCALA NEWS | Volume 45, Issue 3 | 15
Librarian Kyra Hahn, from Douglas County Libraries in Castle Rock, CO, won an honorable mention award for Public Libraries Magazine’s feature article contest. Her feature article appeared in
the July/August 2017 issue of “Public Libraries Magazine.” The article, titled “Public Service Loan Forgiveness: The Struggle to Qualify is Real,” covers the timely topic of the student loan
forgiveness program offered by the U.S. Department of Education and public library staff’s eligibility for program participation. The Dept. of Education program was created through legislation in 2007, targets employees working full-time in the public service sector to be eligible for student loan forgiveness after working 10 years, and making payments on qualified repayment plans beginning October 2007 to
present. The earliest eligibility for student loan forgiveness was set to begin in October 2017 and Hahn reports on challenges to qualify within the program.
Additionally, Hahn did a complementary podcast for PLA’s “Public Libraries Online” in November 2017 in conjunction with this award-winning article. Her advocacy work in relation to student loan policy continued to ramp
up in 2018 with a presentation
at PLA 2018 in Philadelphia and
a few recent webinars including
one for the U.S. Government Publishing Office’s FDLP Academy on the topic. Her goal is to raise awareness of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program among all library staff, to aid with making program enrollment easy to navigate and ease the burden of student loan debt on your wallet!
Hahn is a member of BCALA, APALA – Asian Pacific American Librarian Association, and is working with colleagues to establish a state chapter of BCALA for Colorado.