This article profiles Allison Sloan, the 2010 winner of "LJ"'s Paraprofessional of the Year Award, sponsored by DEMCO, Inc. Her outstanding service and her championship of the term paralibrarian illustrates her passionately held and most fundamental belief: "This is not just a nice job, this is a career." When she launched that career at the Reading Public Library (RPL), Massachusetts, nearly 20 years ago, she was caring for two young kids (both now graduates of the University of Connecticut) and running a home-based resume-writing business. For several years before her children came along, she worked as a state and federal legislative aide for Blue Shield, lobbying legislators in Boston and Washington. Sloan's career-long mentor and one-time boss at RPL, Michael Colford, now director of resource services and information technology at Boston Public Library, nominated her for this award.