Jeff Winkle Named 2019 Ohio Librarian Of The Year

A big honor for the director of the Findlay-Hancock County Public Library.

Jeff Winkle has been named the 2019 Librarian of the Year by the Ohio Library Council.

Winkle says he’s shocked and honored to win the award.

“I had no idea, it’s shocking because I know how many great librarians are in this state and I don’t think I’m one of them, to be honest with you,” Winkle told WFIN News.

“The true heroes of this library I can promise you are all the folks upstairs that work with our patrons every day, it’s not me.”

He says the award is not just about someone’s work in their profession, but even more so, for their work in the community.

“I owned a bookstore for 20 years before this, so really 40 years of my adult life has been spent putting books into people’s hands, which is certainly a blessing and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it.”

He says the library has a lot of exciting things going on as always, and they’re very busy in the early planning stages of a library expansion that will help them serve the community even better.