ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline Volume 9, Number 31 April 12, 2000 In this issue: IMLS NATIONAL AWARD FOR LIBRARY SERVICE On April 10, in the Senate Cannon Caucus Room, Beverly Sheppard, Acting Director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), conducted the Awards Ceremony for the first set of National Awards for Library Service. Sheppard presented awards to the B.B. Comer Memorial Library in Sylacauga, Alabama, the Queens Borough Public Library, Jamaica, New York, the Simon Wiesenthal Center Library and Archives, and the Urie Elementary School Library. Sheppard said the examples set by the winners are inspirational. IMLS awards for Museum Services have been an annual occurrence for the past five years but this marks the initial year for the library awards. Shirley K. Spears, Director of the B.B. Comer Memorial Library, expressed gratitude for being chosen as a winning library. She said the library has been the recipient of Gates awards and gave thanks for "the wonderful E-rate," which has allowed her library to be wired. The library offers a number of programs for seniors in care, reading programs for children in the summer and after school, and programs for home-schooled children. Although the library is a small library, it has partnered with over thirty community organizations to serve a large urban and rural constituency. Rep. Bob Riley (R-AL) added his congratulations to all the award winners. Gary Strong, Director of the Queens Borough Public Library, and Patricia Flynn, President of the Board of Trustees accepted the award on behalf of their library. Strong applauded his staff and their devotion to community service in the 63 library locations. He noted that the library staff recognized that something should be done for students after school. This idea led to the creation of homework help and latch key programs that now serve 100,000 children. Flynn spoke of the six adult learning centers where reading and math skills are honed as well as English conversation skills. Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-NY) who had nominated Queens Public Library for the award spoke of the system's importance in his community and congratulated the library for its award. Kathryn Collins-Turner, Media Specialist at the Urie Elementary School Library in Lyman, Wyoming, accepted the award on behalf of the Urie Elementary School Library. Her school library executes a contract for reading with students in the K-3 school where they "Pig-Out on Books." The program also welcomes home-schoolers and parents in this small rural school. Both her principal and the Superintendent of Schools attended the ceremony, Senator Michael Enzi (R-WY) called the school library an "adventurarium" and praised its family involvement. The Simon Wiesenthal Center Library and Archives was represented by Adaire J. Klein, Director of Library and Archival Services. The library is a resource center for the diverse community of Los Angeles and a research center for information about the Holocaust and human rights issues. The library sponsors an annual book award to recognize the best children's book about tolerance and diversity. Martha Gould, Chairperson of the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS), said that the awards were a cherished plan of recently deceased Jeanne Simon, former Chairperson of NCLIS. She introduced Commissioners C.E. Abe Abramson, Rebecca T. Bingham, Mary S. Furlong, Jose-Marie Griffiths and Jack Hightower. A number of contributions have been made by individuals in the memory of Jeanne Simon to support the event. The National Commission on Libraries and Information Science reviewed applications for the library awards and made recommendations to IMLS. Other sponsors of the event were 3 M Corporation; Sirsi Corporation; Follett Library Resources; Library Systems and Services, LLC; the American Library Association; Baker and Taylor; the Gale Group and Grolier Publishing. Further information on the library awards program can be found at the IMLS Website: www.imls.gov ****** ALAWON (ISSN 1069-7799) is a free, irregular publication of the American Library Association Washington Office. All materials subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. To subscribe to ALAWON, send the message: subscribe ala-wo [your_firstname] [your_lastname] to listproc@ala.org or go to http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. To unsubscribe to ALAWON, send the message: unsubscribe ala-wo to listproc@ala.org. ALAWON archives at http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. 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