Bayou Community Foundation Awards Nearly $200,000 In Grants to 21 Local Nonprofits for COVID-19 Relief
April 24, 2020
Gov. Edwards Announces Funding to the Health Equity Task Force to Examine COVID-19 Racial Disparities
April 24, 2020
Laura Sanders, the director of the Lafourche Parish Public Library, has been named the Louisiana Public Library Director of the Year for 2020.
Each year, if merited, the Louisiana Library Association recognizes the outstanding contributions of a current Louisiana library director. Sanders’ colleagues nominated her for the award given her leadership, forward thinking, and dedication to the Lafourche Parish Public Library.
The recognition is an honor to receive and is the result of collaboration and a dedicated library staff, said Sanders.
“I’m honored and humbled to be recognized by my peers for my work as Lafourche Parish’s library director, but this is truly a team effort,” she said. “My staff and I work each day to ensure that Lafourche Parish residents have access to exceptional library services. We’re proud of the work we have done, but are always aware that there is more work ahead to move our library system continually forward.”
Sanders began her work at the Lafourche Parish Public Library in 2012 as a reference librarian at the Lockport Branch, soon after receiving her Master in Library and Information Science (MLIS) degree from Louisiana State University. Less than six months later, she became Lafourche Parish’s library director.
In 2016, under Sanders’ leadership, the Lafourche Parish Public Library was awarded the Louisiana Library Association’s James O. Modisette Award for Public Libraries. Awarded every two years, if merited, the award recognizes significant improvement in library services in a two-year period. The Lafourche Parish Public Library had last won the James O. Modisette Award for Public Libraries in 1955.
Among the advancements the library system has made during Sanders’ leadership are an emphasis on providing digital resources for library users, such as eBooks and TV, movie, and music streaming services; technology resources such as hotspots, iPads, video games, and learning tablets for checkout; and increased programming for people of all ages.
“We are more than books,” said Sanders of the Lafourche Parish Public Library.
Laura Dobbins Sanders is from Claremore, Oklahoma, a small city in the Ozark foothills that is part of the Tulsa metro area. She married Bill Sanders in 1991, and they have three children, William, Ian, and Addisyn. Sanders was a middle school math teacher for 13 years in Tulsa and in Thibodaux public schools before beginning her work with the Lafourche Parish Public Library.
