When he began studying at Augustana College in Rock Island, Troy Swanson intended to become a lawyer. But spending a lot of time in the library for his work-study job eventually caused him to change his mind.
“I had a realization that I really like the research part but didn’t think I’d actually like the practice of law part. I worked in the library, fortuitously, and it hit me that it could be a good career,” Swanson said. “They had a stellar library with excellent people that helped push me on my way.”
More than two decades later, the Illinois Library Association has named Swanson as the state’s Academic Librarian of the Year. He will receive the award during the association’s annual conference Oct. 6-8 in Peoria.
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Swanson is chairman of the Library/Learning Resources Center at Moraine Valley Community College in Palos Hills, partnering with faculty members to show students how to do research and which sources to trust. He also oversees all of the public programming at the Sylvia M. Jenkins Library, lining up speakers, faculty panels and showings. On top of that, he manages the library’s website, helps maintain the collection and does committee work around campus.
At Dominican University in River Forest, he’s an adjunct adjunct professor in the School of Information Studies. “We bring in the field work practice of what is happening day-to-day in libraries,,” Swanson said, adding that working with students at both campuses is the “energizing part” of his job, especially when he sees learning moments.
The Woodridge resident said he was surprised and honored to learn he had won the award.
“I look at the list of names of people who have won it in the past – I know a number of them – and I think there are people who have done good academic work in Illinois and to have my name listed with them is really special. I’ve been lucky to be in a well-supported and active library,” he said. “I think I’ve had advantages to help me be a leader within the state and the country.”
Swanson hasn’t written a speech for the ceremony. “I’m hoping I don’t have to give much of one!” he joked, adding that he’s looking forward to meeting in person colleagues who he hasn’t seen for a while.
He was nominated for the award by his supervisor at Moraine Valley, Terra Jacobson, dean of Learning Resources, who also teaches a graduate class at Dominican, along with colleagues Marie Martino and Jayne Killackey.
Jacobson, who has worked with Swanson for more than 15 years, said he has “spent decades modeling the leadership and innovation that define the very best of Illinois’ academic librarianship.”
She was not surprised but “extremely happy” he won the well-deserved award.
“I am glad that his work is being recognized across the state. It is especially rare for community college librarians to be recognized for their contributions to the broader academic library community,” Jacobson shared. “Troy has been working in libraries for a long time and has been passionate about the Moraine Valley library’s role on our campus. He has pushed the department to expand outreach work across campus and is a tireless advocate for libraries and community colleges.”
The award is given to someone working in an Illinois academic or research library who has “notable service” to the association and leadership and library service in an academic or research setting, she explained. “You need to be collaborating across the state – someone who works for libraries and works to demonstrate the value of libraries in the academic setting.”
Another fan of Swanson’s work is Don Hamerly, director of the library program at Dominican, who described him as a “smart and innovative collaborator” when Hamerly was teaching classes with him. “(Now) as a school director, I am privileged to see how much his students appreciate the care and expertise that Troy brings to his class preparation and teaching.”
Hamerly attributed Swanson’s recognition to being “so engaged as an information professional and faculty librarian leader in so many ways,” adding that he “has a broad and powerful presence in the field. Others in the field applaud his work in helping develop new information literacy standards for college students, in advocating for protections for library workers and for moving the field forward through his writing and teaching.”
Although he’s clearly a gifted researcher and advocate for academic libraries, it’s Swanson’s role in shaping Moraine Valley’s library that Jacobson considers his most important accomplishment.
“Troy’s career is a testament to the power of academic libraries’ ability to transform lives and the unique role our libraries continue to hold on our campuses,” she said. “He has challenged our campus to think about libraries differently, as an academic center that encourages our students and faculty to engage in a productive and informed dialogue about current issues. … He came into a very traditional library – what people think of as quiet – and moved it into a new direction.”
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Swanson agreed that transforming the library, where he’s just started his 27th year, has been fulfilling and likely helped him gain the award.
“We work to be a very active and relevant part of the community we serve. We teach classes, we’re actively podcasting our library events, we stream our events on YouTube, we’re doing campuswide games. We’re not a library of dusty old people and dusty old books that are forgotten. We’re always changing and evolving to be relevant to the community we serve. I think that is a big portion of the nomination,” he said.
Other accomplishments include serving as legislative chairman for the Cook County College Teachers’ Union, representing employees in all 14 community colleges in Cook County, including Triton College, Dominican, Moraine Valley, City College of Chicago and others. He oversees the policy agency, such as pension reform and funding. He also helped pass HB 1859 in 2025, an Illinois law that requires community college courses be taught by human professors instead of artificial intelligence.
Swanson said the law protects what he called the “disciplinary credibility” of colleges. “It’s not that we can’t use AI and innovation, but the value is that the class is in line with professional standards and learning outcomes.” He explained that college credits gain their value from the degrees held by the faculty that teach the classes – something AI doesn’t have.
Another meaningful opportunity was when he joined a task force of 15 people for the Association of College and Research Libraries, writing national standards for informational literacy called the “framework for information literacy in higher education.”
“This document outlines skills and positions for information usage and learning within the higher education curriculum,” he said. “It’s a national committee and national standard used by librarians across the country and outside the country.”
He’s written a few books, and his most recent, “Knowledge As a Feeling,” came out in 2023 and looks at neuroscience and technology, applying that to informational literacy and the college curriculum.
“Generally people, especially librarians, tend to think about knowledge as shelves in a library: A new piece of knowledge comes into your brain and gets filed on a shelf. The neuroscientists are showing us how complex knowledge really is and how we create a sense of the world consciously and unconsciously and how we interact with the world,” Swanson shared. “We often think of vertical thinking as a formulaic process of logic and information, and what we’re really learning is it’s way more complicated than that. My book tries to push librarians and the wider profession to what’s more in line with what the science is showing us.”
He encouraged others to think about becoming an academic librarian, though the career might not be what they expect. “This is actually a good job. Often people who really love books and reading think they’ll be a librarian and sit around and read. I read a lot of books. But people ask me what’s on the fiction bestseller list, and that is not the kind of job I do.”
He added that the work of a library isn’t to simply hold books. “The purpose of a library is to foster ideas in the community you serve. It’s fostering learning and growth in the community. … All of it is about rowing ideas, and it’s so important in a college university that it isn’t about the space together but the space between classrooms, and that is the role we play on campus.”
Melinda Moore is a freelance reporter.