the National Medal for Museum and Library Services is the nation's highest
honor for libraries and museums that are serving their communities in exceptional
ways schaller north hills library director sharon mcrae and community
member janet miller traveled to Washington from glenshaw Pennsylvania to
receive the National Medal and spoke to IMLS about how the library impacts the
community the shower north hills library is owned and operated by Chandler
Township and we opened in September of 1942 two rooms three thousand volumes
three editions later we're now at 24,000 square feet and 130,000 items well some
of the programs that the library provides I want to always start back
because I think of the the very youngest the moms coming in with infants for a
story time and for interaction through many of the toddler programs but then it
goes on straight through the book clubs that they have and anybody can be part
of these book clubs the art shows that are provided so you can get the walk
into that and enjoy art on on the walls you can get a book you can be part of a
book club you can rent your DVDs there's a program every day morning noon and
evenings usually to fulfill just about any need of a member of that community
the community built the library and so it should reflect who they are and how
they're changing and they the community has called upon us to provide these
venues of change we had a local artist who said boy there's not a lot of places
that we can go to show our work and so we created an art gallery we do an art
show we connect folks in their creative side with art inspiration and so it is
more than books issues that are met by this
library can range anywhere from the early literacy which this library is
extremely involved in through issues of tax assessment and the social security
issues and that they provide programming and lawyers and all types of personnel
that come into this library that any question that you have can be answered
we're out in the community quite a bit asking people what do you want to see
you the library or if they come in and they they say we're having trouble with
our assessment we want to appeal our property assessment how can you help us
and so because we provide online access and we have a close relationship with
the township manager and some various partners they were able to help people
kind of create a plan to appeal their assessments and so we were a big part of
that piece you want to know anything you want to get anything you got to come to
the schaller north hills library early literacy programs are are at the core of
what we do that birth through 5 age we know through studies and you hear all
sorts of research that those are the times where the kids they're just like
sponges and so we provide a variety like a package of programs for them so we
have the story times but we also have kid aerobics or we have little artists
where they can create things or there's a dance program and they learn to shake
rattle and roll with various instruments and we also have counting sheep which is
a math concept program for little kids and we also have our Discovery Kids
program which is a science program for them the library is a family place
library which is a national designation we were trained in New York to to serve
directly these little kids but their caregivers as well their parents and so
at the core of that program is the parent-child workshop can you bring
in toys for the appropriate age levels and you also bring in community experts
maybe on nutrition or on movement or on health issues so that the parents can
talk to these folks while their kids are engaged in in imagination play or they
dress up or they play with the kitchen or various things and so we've really
taken that program to heart and have expanded it with those other programs
that we provide the role we play in the future of our community is ever-changing
and we would expect that the community would dictate to us how the library is
going to change and the schaller north hills library is that hub for for our
community and so that's where our role is and our role is to provide
information and resources but in a human way that connects each other