Waukegan library wins innovative award

Submitted by Waukegan Public Library

The Waukegan Public Library won seven awards and $2,000 in cash prizes at the 2011 Illinois Library Association Annual Conference, held Oct. 18-20 at the Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont.

Public, private and school libraries statewide compete for the annual awards, designed to honor merit in all aspects of librarianship.

For the second year in a row, the Waukegan Public Library took home the Highsmith Library Innovative Award. Sponsored by Highsmith Inc., the award recognizes a library's achievement in planning and implementing an innovative program or service that has a measurable impact on its users. In 2010, the library won the award for its annual Ray Bradbury Storytelling Festival. This year, the honor goes to the library's Early Learning Center, a facility that opened in 2008 to address pre-literacy needs among Waukegan children age 7 and younger.

“We were impressed not only by the ELC's rotating exhibits, but the increases in circulation and program attendance,” said Matt Mulder, director of publications at Highsmith, Inc.

Located on the lower level of the library, the Early Learning Center offers programs, bilingual displays and museum-quality exhibits that rotate annually based on a theme. On Dec. 4, the center will transform from an “Under the Sea” theme to “Creepy Crawlies,” an expansive exhibit featuring giant replicas of bugs and interactive displays based on the illustrations of Eric Carle. Circulation of children's materials and story time attendance have continued to grow as much as 26 percent a year since the facility opened.

The library's new Literacy Suite won the 2011 Hugh C. Atkinson Memorial/DEMCO Award. DEMCO sponsors the award each year to honor an individual, group, program or institution for a sustained activity or contribution that has a lasting impact on librarianship. With a tutoring room and two classrooms, the Literacy Suite offers free one-on-one tutoring to adults wanting to improve basic reading or writing skills, adult basic education and family literacy classes, and computer classes in Spanish and English.

“All the laurels for this award go to our hardworking literacy staff and partners,” said Richard Lee, the library's executive director. “They devote countless hours to helping improve literacy rates in Lake County.”

Many people would be shocked at the statistics, Lee added. According to United Way of Lake County, 13 percent of Lake County adults are unable to sign their own name or locate the expiration date on a driver's license.

For 25 years, the library has partnered with the College of Lake County and the Literacy Volunteers of Lake County to provide literacy services at various off-site facilities. In response to a 2009 “Legacy of Literacy” fundraising campaign, North Shore Gas donated $20,000 toward the construction of a dedicated facility for helping those struggling to read and write basic English. The Literacy Suite opened in February 2010.

The Illinois Library Association also conferred five first-place awards to the Waukegan Public Library for the Excellence in Marketing and Public Relations Competition. The library won first place in the $1 to $5 million budget category for “Best Newsletter Series,” “Most Original Event/Festival,” “Most Creative Visual/Interactive Display,” “Best Singular Direct Mail or Promotion Piece” and “Most Creative Video.”

Corresponding to the conference theme, “Bold, Brilliant, Brave,” many of the sessions addressed the changing role of libraries in the digital age, and how libraries can deliver more services with less money in the budget. The Waukegan Public Library, like other Illinois libraries, increasingly relies on funding from private donors to provide many of its programs, including the award winners honored at the recent conference.

For more information about Waukegan Public Library programs or to learn about sponsorship opportunities, call the library's assistant director of community services, Elizabeth Stearns, at (847) 623-2041.

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