The Sylvan Lake Municipal Library continues to be recognized as one of the premier libraries in the Province of Alberta after being nominated for three different awards.
“There are three library awards offered in this province,” Library Director Caroline Vandriel said. “One is called the Punch Jackson Award. That is for any library service that is above and beyond what is normally considered library services. We are up for that award for our Read for 15 organization.”
The second award is the Minister’s Award in Excellence of Public Library Service which comes through Municipal Affairs, whereas the Punch Jackson comes from the Library Association of Alberta.The Minister Award is organized by the Library Public Services Branch and is awarded to the Library Board of a particular library for excellent service.
“We are up for that award for both the Read for 15, as well as the little Free Pantry Organization,” explained Vandriel.
On top of these two awards, the Minister Award qualifies the library for a different sort of award that allows the community of Sylvan Lake to have their input.
“The third award is a little different,” she said. “Because we are up for the Minister’s Award, we are automatically put into the running for the YOU awards. This is kind of a popularity context because this is one that the public can vote on numerous times.”
From March 27-31 people can log on the Sylvan Lake Library’s website and vote for either the Read for 15 program or Little Free Pantry as many times as they wish in order to show support for the library’s extensive programming.
“I would love to see it go as viral as the Hockeyville did,” Vandriel said. “I would love it if people sat at their computers and kept hitting vote for 15 minutes. Rack up the votes for either of these programs.”
She added, “We are planning to have that as our splash page for the Library’s home page so it will be readily available.”
Vandriel credits her staff for the amount of work that went into establishing this programming.
“I’m very proud,” she said. “I am pleased with the staff here and the contributions they have made towards these services. There have been a number of new services and our staff has stepped up and have been remarkable in supporting them.”
She also credited the community of Sylvan Lake for being so supportive of the library.
“We would not have been anywhere without community participation in the Read for 15 project this year,” she said. “The schools were amazing - we got statistics from all schools in Sylvan Lake. We moved from 12th place last year to 6th this year.
She added the Little Free Pantry is run completely by donation. The library puts no money into the program, adding the success of the program is entirely credited to the community.
Vandriel shared her advice for March 27-31 adding she hopes Lakers will “Vote, Vote, Vote, Vote, Vote.”
reporter@sylvanlakenews.com