[Music] 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 walk Keegan Public Library
executive director Richard Lee and Community member Diana Alvi traveled to
Washington from Wan Illinois to receive the national medal and spoke to imls
about how the library impacts the community well the Wan Public Library is
has been a public library in wagan for 115
years and um we've taken kind of a different tact than what is normally the
way that public libraries go and to us um it was decided through what we've
heard in the community that we really needed to be a support for Education
being the Nimble organization that we are we got together and repurposed 2200
square ft into Early Learning Center that primarily got kids ready for
kindergarten by whether it was knowing primary colors putting things in groups
of 10 a letter recognition so it's not just the library with the books but the
emphasis really on on reading and whatever reading is population wise you
know we're about 990,000 and it is heavily Latino about a year ago I guess
we hired an engagement and Outreach person
and um her goal was really to put together this core of ambassadors to go
out into the community and find out what what they needed and bring that
information back to us and um the promoturist was born from that I have
worked as a promotor the promotora is responsible for going out into the
community and advocating on behalf of the library and letting the citizens
know what is available in the library and it starts with the very Basics about
um obtaining a library card what types of materials are available in a library
often times the community Latino Community isn't familiar with uh
libraries that we don't have them in Mexico so you have to educate them about
the library and to let them know it's a free service and it has a wealth of um
materials there that are available for any need that they might have and then
find out from the community what is it that you need what is it what need do
you have that isn't being met and what is stopping you from advancing what is
stopping you from progressing here in the community um is it GED classes is it
ESL classes is it um computer literacy classes and then try to find a way to
break down that barrier we took the emphasis off the books a little bit and
I did that reluctantly because to me going through Library school and
everything else you really um that that was your your measurement
for success by your circulation and in a city of our size I know how many books
that they should be circulating and we're nowhere near that and I'm okay
with that because now we found out that we have this other need that we can
really reach and to me if we're we're only successful when our citizens are
successful whatever they want to do whether they want to get a better job or
a job whether they want to go back and get their GED whether they want to um
finish school or whatever it is we're we're there to help them well I can
speak personally about the impact that it's having in our community by the
voices that of the citizens that come back to our ESL classes I know that I
have had personal experience with um my students coming back and saying I was
able to ask for a raise or to ask for a promotion at their job because now they
are able to communicate better at their job or I was able to attend my first
parent teacher conference and those students are so proud because they could
ask the teachers questions about their own uh children so sometimes it's very
basic uh needs that are being met but they come back and they are just so darn
proud of themselves for having accomplished that it's been very
successful for us and um we're setting our our sites on the entire Community
not just the Latino but African-American and um all
demographics I would I would think one thing that makes us special is that we
are I'm goingon to use that Nimble word again when we see a need out there or we
find a need the ambassadors bring back something that says you know hey this is
a need that's in the community that no one else is is really addressing here we
really take action and we do it without any extra funds really um our budget's
been flat for 3 years and we find a way to make it happen