2020 OPYA: Stephen B. Alayon

The Professional Regulation Commission conferred the Outstanding Professional Librarian of the Year Award on  on 17 December 2020. The citation reads:

STEPHEN B. ALAYON is a distinguished achiever in the field of Library and Information Science, committed to uphold UN SDGs by supporting open access to information from publicly-funded researches on fisheries and aquaculture. His undertakings served to strengthen fisheries education by promoting research and scholarship through the dissemination of SEAFDEC publications in print, institutional repository, and digital library box. His advocacy ushered in the protection of fundamental freedoms through his outreach NcelLIBERation jail libraries: his crucial role in the institutionalization of PLAI National Congresses; and his passion and service to capacitate Fisheries and LIS professionals and students. His competence, excellence, and commendable track record earned him various awards and recognition such as PAARL Outstanding Academic/Research Librarian, ASLP Citation Award for Excellence in Research, PLAI Distinguished Service Award, Severino I. Velasco Award, and Gawad sa Natatanging Laybraryan (Visayas), SLA Asian Librarian Award, IASSIST Fellow. and ACS Publications Travel Grant for Librarians. As an officer/member of PLAI, PLAI-WVRLC, ASLP, PAARL, PATLS, SLA, and IAMSLIC, he demonstrated relentless dedication to these organizations as a testimony to an outstanding career.

Thanks to Stephen Alayon for the citation and photo.