Children’s Librarian is Employee of the Year
The Hawaii State Public Library System (HSPLS) announces the selection of Curt Fukumoto, Children’s Librarian of Salt Lake-Moanalua Public Library, as the 2010 HSPLS Employee of the Year.
Fukumoto is outstanding in opening up the wonderful world of reading to his young patrons. His weekly story times, which have continued year round since May 2006, routinely draw over one hundred preschoolers and their caregivers. In 2010 alone, Fukumoto’s programs have has drawn an attendance of more than 5,000.
As a tireless worker, Fukumoto’s weekly multi-media experiences involve singing, guitar-playing, read alouds, participatory exercises, shadow board presentations, craft activities, and puppet shows complete with a stage, homemade puppets and a full soundtrack. He is a caring, humble and unassuming professional who is universally liked by his patrons and co-workers.
As HSPLS Employee of the Year, Fukumoto was honored at the Governor’s Awards Ceremony on October 7 in the State Capitol Auditorium, and was recognized during the October 21 Board of Education Meeting at Keoneula Elementary School in Ewa Beach.
Theola Striker, Pre-Audit Clerk III, Administrative Services Branch of the Office of the State Librarian, is the 2010 Sustained Superior Performance Award winner. In spite of staff shortages incurred by the hiring freeze and reduced work hours due to furloughs, Striker continued meeting all demands, requirements and deadlines created by hundreds of fiscal and budgetary activities generated by HSPLS. With constant changes in State fiscal policies and procedures, Striker applied her broad fiscal experience and common sense analytical skills to develop internal forms, supporting documentation and instruction, which yielded quicker payroll processing, more efficient procurement, and faster vendor payments.
In addition, Striker assumed many other tasks and duties as staffing levels were reduced, including monitoring federal LSTA grants totaling more than a million dollars annually. Her dedication and professionalism in taking on these added responsibilities has helped HSPLS continue receiving much needed funding for our network upgrade and other technological enhancements.
