Missouri Southern State University’s Assistant Library Director, Amber Carr, Named MLA’s 2025 Outstanding Professional Librarian

The Missouri Library Association (MLA) has named Amber Carr, assistant library director and marketing/outreach librarian at Missouri Southern State University’s (MSSU) George A. Spiva Library, as the recipient of its 2025 Outstanding Professional Librarian Award.

Carr’s work has expanded the library’s role as a place for learning and engagement. With grant funding and administrative support, she developed a series of food preparation and nutrition programs to promote wellness and encourage hands-on learning across campus.

She also secured funding for a mobile kitchen to serve as a teaching tool and transformed a study room into a full functional cooking demonstration classroom, where she regularly hosts sessions on nutrition, budgeting, and meal preparation. Participants learn to cook healthy, affordable meals and receive ingredients to recreate them at home.

“We are proud of Amber and her well-deserved award. She is an indispensable member of our team and personifies the best of Spiva Library and MSSU. She’s empathetic, positive, hardworking, and dedicated to helping and empowering others — including students, coworkers, and campus employees,” said James Capeci, MSSU Spiva Library Director. “She also serves on numerous campus committees, including the Faculty Senate Executive Committee, and is a co-director of the Lion Co-Op, the campus food and personal hygiene pantry.”

“I am honored and humbled to receive this year’s Missouri Library Association’s Outstanding Professional Librarian Award. This recognition is a reflection of administrators and colleagues who foster an environment which encourages and supports pursing new endeavors like the Feeding the Pride health literacy programming. Libraries and librarians have the power to transform lives. It is a privilege to serve the MSSU community and the surrounding Joplin area, striving to make a positive impact, one book, one program and one patron at a time,” said Amber Carr, MSSU assistant library director.

The Outstanding Professional Librarian Award recognizes a librarian who has made significant contributions to the profession and their community through innovation, leadership, and service.