Retirement open house to honor St. Charles library's youth services manager

The St. Charles Public Library is hosting a retirement open house to honor Youth Services Manager A. Denise Farrugia from 3 to 5 p.m. Sunday, May 20, in the Carnegie Community Room, 1 S. Sixth Ave.

Farrugia is retiring after 29 years of service to the St. Charles Public Library. Her career in public libraries began 40 years ago in 1977.

During Farrugia's tenure at the library, she coordinated the 2014 renovation of the Youth Services department featuring "Literacy Lane," an early childhood area for preschoolers, as well as the current project of creating "Student Street," a dedicated space for elementary and middle school students.

Farrugia has devoted her professional life to youth services librarianship and storytelling. She has been a storyteller at the Illinois State Fair, past president of the Lincoln Story League, coordinated twenty trips to the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee, received the National Storytelling Network Oracle Award for the North Central Region in 2003, and was the recipient of the Illinois Library Association's David Cup Award.

In 2013, she was inducted as the 31st Illinois Library Luminary by the Illinois Library Association.

As a three-time chair of the iREAD Committee, Farrugia established iREAD's popularity and credibility with libraries in Illinois and is credited with establishing the framework for running a successful iREAD program, now one of the cornerstones of the Illinois Library Association.

The public is invited to attend. Refreshments will be served. For information, visit www.scpld.org or call (630) 584-0076.