John F. Szabo (born 1968) is an American librarian, library executive, and the twentieth City Librarian of Los Angeles, the chief executive of the Los Angeles Public Library. He previously served as the Director of the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System, Clearwater (FL) Public Library System, Palm Harbor (FL) Public Library, and the Robinson (IL) Public Library District. In 2015, the Los Angeles Public Library won the National Medal for Museum and Library Service, the nation's highest honor for a library or museum. Awarded by the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the medal was presented by First Lady Michelle Obama at a White House ceremony. Szabo Head

Biography

Szabo was born in

Orlando, Florida Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County, Florida, Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Greater Orlando, Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, acco ...

, and grew up in Montgomery, Alabama. At age 16, Szabo started working as a library clerk at

Gunter Air Force Base Gunter Annex is a United States Air Force installation located in the North-northeast suburbs of Montgomery, Alabama. The base is named after former Montgomery mayor William Adams Gunter. Until 1992 it was known as Gunter Air Force Base or Gu ...

. Szabo received his bachelor's degree in telecommunications from the University of Alabama and his master's degree in information and library studies at the University of Michigan. Szabo was appointed director of the public library district serving the city of Robinson and Crawford County, Illinois. His experience then extended to the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System (Director 2005-2012), Clearwater Public Library System in Florida, and Palm Harbor Public Library, also in Florida. During his Florida tenure, he served as

Florida Library Association The Florida Library Association (FLA) is a regional, non-profit organization that promotes professional discourse and opportunities for the library community in Florida. The FLA publishes the Florida Libraries Journal. The organization's missio ...

president. Szabo became City Librarian of Los Angeles in 2012.

Honors

In 2020, Szabo was awarded the Betsy Plank Distinguished Achievement Award from the

University of Alabama College of Communication and Information Sciences The University of Alabama (informally known as Alabama, UA, or Bama) is a public research university in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Established in 1820 and opened to students in 1831, the University of Alabama is the oldest and largest of the pub ...

. Alumni Achievement Award, University of Michigan School of Information, 2010. Szabo was featured in the ''New York Times'' best seller and ''Washington Post'' top 10 book of the year '' The Library Book'' by Susan Orlean, 2019. Named as a "Culture Czar" in "The Gay List: 50 Icons and Iconoclasts Who are Transforming the City." ''Los Angeles Magazine'', Pride Issue, June 2019. For his support of the Mexican community of Los Angeles, he received an award of recognition from the University of Guadalajara Foundation and the

Universidad de Guadalajara The University of Guadalajara ( es, Universidad de Guadalajara) is a public higher education institution in the Mexican city of Guadalajara. The university has several high schools as well as graduate and undergraduate campuses, which are dis ...

Publications

Author of ''Death and Dying: An Annotated Bibliography of the Thanatological Literature''. Author of ''The Bayeux Tapestry: A Critically Annotated Bibliography''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Szabo, John Living people 1968 births American librarians People from Los Angeles People from Orlando, Florida People from Montgomery, Alabama University of Alabama alumni University of Michigan School of Information alumni Date of birth missing (living people)