Category: Awards

Hennepin County (Minn.) Library Outreach Services is the 2011 winner of the ASCLA Exceptional Service Award, an annual honor presented by the Association of Specialized and Cooperative Library Agencies (ASCLA).

The award recognizes exceptional service to patients in a medical facility, to persons who are homebound, to inmates, to older adults and adults with a physical or mental disability who live in group homes or residences, and also recognizes professional leadership, effective interpretation of programs, pioneering activity and significant research.

For 20 years, Hennepin County Library Outreach Services has provided innovative and outstanding service to Hennepin County residents who are unable to visit and use the library due to age, illness, disability or incarceration. By providing Deposit collections and At Home Service to seniors, staff in Outreach Services is helping implement the county’s initiative on aging. Its innovative programming promotes positive change in juvenile and adult offenders. Specifically, these programs include the “Freedom Ticket” newsletter, which helps inmates re-enter the community; the Read to Me Program, which helps incarcerated parents record and send books to their children to help them stay connected; and the One Read Program, which brings women inmates, corrections staff and librarians together to share the book experience.

“The scope of the services the unit staff provides, the diversity of the people they reach and the positive impact they have on their clients is impressive,” said ASCLA President Diana Reese. “The fact that they have maintained this high level of performance for such a long period of time is truly remarkable. We are thrilled to honor the library with this year’s ASCLA Exceptional Service Award to help bring attention to their outstanding accomplishments.”

Reese will officially present the award to the library at the ASCLA/COSLA Reception from 8-10 p.m. on Sunday, June 26, 8-10 p.m. at the 2011 ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans.  This event, open to all ALA Conference attendees, will be held at an ALA Conference hotel.  The exact room location will be announced in late spring.

Elizabeth Ann Ridler, neighborhood library supervisor at the Brooklyn (N.Y.) Public Library and longtime member of the Association of Specialized and Cooperative Library Agencies (ASCLA), is the 2011 recipient of the ASCLA Cathleen Bourdon Service Award.  ASCLA is a division of the American Library Association.

This award, named in honor of former ASCLA Executive Director Cathleen Bourdon, is presented to an ASCLA personal member for exceptional service and sustained leadership to the division. This includes participation in activities which have enhanced the stature, reputation and overall strength of ASCLA, as well as cultivated the division’s relationship with other appropriate organizations, institutions or governmental agencies.

As an ALA councilor since 2004, Ridler has worked tirelessly to enhance the stature, reputation and overall strength of ASCLA.  She has worked closely with ALA’s Accessibility Assembly (formerly the ADA Assembly) on ADA issues, providing steadfast and eloquent representation of the division’s concerns and priorities. She has been a guardian of the ADA, showing leadership, dedication and skill on both ALA Council and in other governance roles to ensure that its provisions continue to be applied and endorsed as ALA policy.

“Elizabeth Ridler has been at the forefront of librarians in addressing the critical issue of equity of access that is so central to the core of our work in ASCLA,” said Diana Reese, ASCLA president. “Elizabeth is a strong advocate for ASCLA and for ALA members with access issues as well as for the general populace.”

Ridler has distinguished herself as a leader on issues of equity of access at the national, state and local levels. In addition to her service to ASCLA, she has also provided noteworthy contributions to ASCLA’s Libraries Serving Special Populations Section (LSSPS), advocating for their important issues at every possible opportunity.  Her pioneering efforts with the ASCLA LSSPS Century Scholarship Committee have enabled ASCLA LSSPS to offer an excellent program of financial assistance to persons with disabilities pursuing a master’s degree in library and information science.

Ridler’s specific leadership service includes ALA Councilor at Large (2004-2013); ASCLA Legislative Committee (2008-2012); ALA Resolutions Committee (2006-2010);  ASCLA Ad Hoc Task Force on Mentoring, chair (2002-2004); ASCLA Century Scholarship Jury, chair (2000-2004); ADA Assembly (1995-1999); and ASCLA Standards Committee Subcommittee to Develop Guidelines for Library Services for People with Mental Retardation (1995-1999). She has also served as president (1999-2009) for the New York Library Association’s Round Table on Library Services to Special Populations. She holds an MLIS from the University of Western Ontario, an MA from the University of Alberta, a BS in Education from the University of Toronto and a BA from Trent University.

ASCLA President Diana Reese will officially present the award to Ms. Ridler at the ASCLA/COSLA Reception from 8 – 10 p.m. on Sunday, June 26 at the 2011 ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans.  This event, open to all ALA Conference attendees, will be held at an ALA Conference hotel.  The exact room location will be announced in late spring.

The Association of Specialized and Cooperative Library Agencies (ASCLA) has selected the Queens Library Mail-A-Book Program with Interactive Programming for the homebound as the winner of the 2011 ASCLA/KLAS/NOD award, sponsored by Keystone Systems.

The ASCLA/Keystone Library Automation Systems/National Organization for Disabilities Award presents $1,000 and a citation to an innovative and well-organized project that successfully developed or expanded services for people with disabilities. The award can be for a specific service, program or for a library that has made its total services more accessible through changing physical and/or attitudinal barriers. This year’s recipient used funds from the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation to fulfill a longtime wish to expand library services to 750 homebound and disabled library customers and 35 assisted care facilities. However, the program, which was profiled in the July 2010 issue of AARP’s magazine “Modern Maturity” and also featured in the December 2, 2009 “Queens Gazette,” goes beyond book delivery to offer a wide range of interactive programming for the homebound.  With a relatively small investment in a new teleconferencing console and toll-free phone number, library staff offered phone access for homebound customers to dozens of live programs, including concerts and guest speakers.

The library initiated its interactive program offerings in response to survey results showing homebound customers feel isolated, bored and starved for peer relationships. Library staff also offer weekly phone chats, where homebound patrons can meet others and foster new friendships as well as participate in bingo, book clubs and special programs.  For example, the Metropolitan Museum of Art presented a multi-part lecture series where print reproductions of artworks were sent to registered participants in advance. The library also arranged a special luncheon for the weekly chat participants at a local restaurant where 12 of the regulars were able to attend, traveling by disability transport in wheelchairs and with walkers and accompanied by family members and home health aides.

Thanks to the hard work of Program Manager Madlyn Schneider, Queens Library at Queens Village, and Senior Librarian Willie Simmons, the live interactive services have proven to be an important and significant expansion to the Mail A Book library services for the homebound and persons with disabilities. From the initial plan for a pilot of six interactive phone-in programs with five people on each call in 2009, the program quickly expanded to 60 live programs in 2009 and 83 live programs in 2010. The program continues to expand its offerings of multi-lingual library materials in Chinese, French, Spanish, Russian and Hindi to serve the diverse community of Queens, but still seeks the resources to do extended outreach to the homebound in non-English speaking communities.

“Using an abundance of creativity and imagination, the caring staff of the Queens Library Mail-A-Book program used low-cost, interactive technology to enrich the lives of persons with disabilities in their community,” said Diana Reese, ASCLA president. “They put their hearts into leaping over physical and attitudinal barriers and making the total services of the Queens Library more accessible and reached homebound customers with a host of engaging library offerings that brought regular social interaction and lifelong learning opportunities from the Queens Library into their living rooms. The nominator described program outcomes as having the ‘quality of a near-miracle.’ With this award, ASCLA, Keystone Systems, Inc. (KLAS) and the National Organization on Disability (NOD) recognize and congratulate the staff of the Queens Library for their pioneering role in offering innovative library services that deliver miraculous outcomes for their homebound populations.”

ASCLA President Diana Reese will officially present the award to the Queens Library at the ASCLA/COSLA Reception on from 8 – 10 p.m. on Sunday, June 26 at the 2011 ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans.  This event, open to all ALA Conference attendees, will be held at an ALA Conference hotel.  The exact room location will be announced in late spring.