Jade Parks honored as 2025 Young Adult Library Professional Downers Grove Public Library Director Julie Milavec receives a plaque from Mayor Bob Barnett recognizing her as the 2025 Illinois Library Association Librarian of the Year. Courtesy of Downers Grove Public Library

Calling it the “capstone of a career well spent,” Downers Grove Public Library Director Julie Milavec recently was named the Illinois Library Association Librarian of the Year.

Milavec first became involved in library work as a youth volunteer at the Joliet Public Library, where her father was the director for more than three decades.

Knowing Milavec understood the Dewey Decimal System, the librarians quickly put her to work shelving books. However, Milavec’s family connection to library science goes back a bit furt

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