Red Hook Win Shubert Award!

The New York State Regents Advisory Council on Libraries has announced that the 2015 Joseph F. Shubert Library Excellence Award has been awarded to the Red Hook Public Library for recognition of its innovative programs and successful community engagement partnership efforts.

The Red Hook Public Library, in existence for 150 years has more than 4,500 active card holders with more than 200,000 annual visits. In recent years library visits have increased 516%, library program attendance has increased 140% and circulation has increased 23% due to the library becoming an integral part of its community and developing partnerships with both local and regional organizations as well as with the local school system and Bard College. Library staff recently revised the library’s website (www.redhooklibrary.org) and has begun issuing a monthly e-newsletter.

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In 2015, Red Hook Public Library was awarded the honor of being named a finalist for the “Best Small Library in America” award given by Library Journal and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In 2014 the library was chosen to be one of only ten libraries nationwide to participate in ALA’s ongoing Libraries Transforming Communities initiative and has recently been invited by the Aspen Institute to be the only New York public library to participate in the Institute’s pilot project in 2015-2016. [The pilot initiative was launched for the Aspen Institute’s newest interactive engagement tool, an “Action Guide for Re-Envisioning Your Public Library.” The guide is designed to complement the institute’s 2014 report, “Rising to the Challenge: Re-Envisioning Public Libraries,” which is available to download at http://as.pn/libraries.] The Red Hook Public Library was chosen to be a participant in New York’s ILEAD USA program due to the library’s collaborative efforts with its local school and college libraries in developing a mobile Makerspaces program.

The Joseph F. Shubert Excellence Award is given annually to recognize the achievements of small, medium and large libraries and library consortia in New York State. The Award honors libraries or library consortia that have taken significant steps within the past two years to improve the quality of library service to users. For more information about the Joseph F. Shubert Library Excellence Award and the Regents Advisory Council on Libraries, visit: http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/libdev/adviscns/rac/index.html