Don't settle: Leslie Monsalve-Jones: New Mexico State Library.(Rebels)

Leslie Monsalve-Jones is a library technician with the New Mexico State Library, responsible for claiming documents that state agencies don't submit. "This requires that I play daily detective for the depository system," she says. She also maintains the collection and can immediately track down any requested document. Monica Kirby, director of the Spanish Peaks Library District, Walsenburg, CO, says, "Her MLS coworkers come to her when they can't find a document, or just ask her for the call number."

In short, she's the kind of worker whose price is above rubies but whose pay is slightly above pebbles. And she doesn't believe paraprofessionals should settle for that. …