Excellence in Public Library Service Award Winners Announced

The Connecticut Library Association and the Connecticut State Library are pleased to announce that the winners of the 2010 Excellence in Public Library Service Awards are the Essex Library Association and the Fairfield Public Library.

Public libraries from across Connecticut were nominated for the awards which were judged on:
• Service to their community
• Creativity and innovation
• Leadership in creating programs that can be emulated by other libraries
• Developing services that will affect the future of the library and their community

A panel of 3 judges from outside Connecticut reviewed these remarkable nominations and while they were impressed with all of the nominees when they took into account these factors Essex and Fairfield emerged as winners.

Essex won in the category of a community with less than a population of 15,000 for their program GirlZone. The GirlZone Girls’ Self-Esteem Group was designed as an 8 week series of workshops for girls between the ages of 13 and 17 to combat the injurious effects of low self-esteem and emotional distress among adolescent girls.

GirlZone was funded by a grant from the Middlesex Community Foundation. The program topics covered positive body image, nutrition, inner and outer beauty, etiquette, job interview techniques, internet safety and clothes sense – all of which speak directly to the special needs of young women. Guest presenters, drawn from business, fashion, medicine and others were all experts in their fields with experience helping young women find the best in themselves.

The program is an unqualified success. Girls who arrived in cliques, left with new friends. Girls who came along found a circle of caring peers whom they learned to trust. Girls whose low self-esteem had made them shy, blossomed before the library staff’s eyes. Even those who came in defiant or withdrawn were totally engaged by the program’s end. All of them graduated as stronger and more confident young women.

Fairfield’s Jobs 2009 program won them the award for excellence in the over 15,000 population category. This series of programs was conceived in response to the sudden economic downturn that resulted in widespread layoffs in Fairfield County and throughout Connecticut. At a minimal cost to the library, they developed a series of weekly programs that partner the library with area professionals speaking on a wide variety of employment topics as well as live and virtual networking groups that offer ongoing support and direction for job seekers.

The program has reached over 2000 library users at programs and networking groups plus has had over 2200 hits on the podcasts for programs along with a Linkedin group of over 45. The program covered all aspects of the job search and enabled the library to forge partnerships with local businesses and professionals. It also had a positive effect on the perception of the library and its funding needs by the public.

The goal of the program continues to be to provide all possible assistance to support residents in what is often a protracted jog search process. Many attendees at programs have told the library that job searching is often a solitary discouraging process and that the weekly Jobs 2009 programs, networking groups and podcasts have helped to keep them upbeat, focused, and informed about the latest trends in the job market. The program is very low cost (all the presenters are free), focused on timely, in-demand topics and depends on the willingness of area business and agencies to partner with the library in a high profile example of community support. It is yet another example of how libraries truly can make a difference.

Essex and Fairfield will receive their awards at the April 2010 Connecticut Library Association Conference. They will present a program on both their projects at the conference as well. The Friends of Connecticut Libraries and the Association of Connecticut Library Boards are partners with CLA and the State Library in presenting these awards.