Madison Public Library Youth Services Teen Librarian Beth McIntyre has been awarded the Association for Library Service to Children’s prestigious Louise Seaman Bechtel Fellowship

The Bechtel Fellowship provides a grant to a qualified children’s librarian to spend four weeks studying at the Baldwin Library of Historical Children’s Literature of the George A. Smather Libraries, University of Florida, Gainesville. The Baldwin Library contains a special collection of 130,000 volumes of children’s literature.

McIntyre, who works at Central Library, began her one-month fellowship this week. Her research focuses on examining depictions of poverty in books for children over the last 200 years and looking for opportunities for empathetic readings.

“We wish her every success during this time and know that her research will benefit her work at Madison Public Library,” said Molly Warren.