South Australian Public Library Network Awards

If you missed the July Quarterly, all presentations and photos from the day are available on-line

Congratulations to all of the nominees for the Crawford Awards.  The standard of all the projects was extremely high and even though not all can win I know that many other libraries will benefit from your ideas.  Well done to the Winner of the Crawford Award –

City of Playford Give the Gift of Reading initiative.  The judging panel supplied the following statement as to why they were selected.

 ‘Give the Gift of Reading’ has been awarded as the 2014 Crawford Award winner. It not only illustrates an initiative of a gift that keeps on giving by recognising the value of a book and the merits of literacy to not just the individual recipient but to the family around them, but also as recognition of what can be generated within a community for their community.

This initiative takes the library outside its physical walls and builds buy in and partnerships throughout  the City of Playford.

It offers opportunities for the concept to be applied to other communities and community groups in the future and already has been adopted by several other libraries in SA

It is an innovative idea that meets the criteria of the Award with an emphasis on implementing a project that assists disadvantaged communities and also demonstrates excellence in providing inspirational leadership to public libraries.

Well done also to the recipient of an Encouragement Award.   Roxby Downs Council  “Excellence in community and Multicultural Learning “.  It is to be noted that this was awarded as an additional prize by the Crawford family in recognition of the benefits to this specific community.  The judging panel stated –

‘Excellence in Community and Multicultural Learning’ has been awarded an Encouragement Award in recognition of the impact this initiative has made on the Roxby Downs community.  This project has given opportunities for members living in this multi-cultural community to learn and grow their skills relevant to everyday life.

Roxby Downs is recognised for implementing a service which has direct benefits to their unique community and engaging the diversity of cultural groups in a remote and isolated area.

Congratulations also to the applicants for the Rod East Fellowship Award.  The trustees were very impressed with the caliber of these applications and also hope that the unsuccessful applicants can still be supported by the network to progress their ideas.  Harriet Winchester (recipient of the 2012 Award) presented at the event and it was fantastic to see what can be achieved through this fellowship.

Well done to the winner of the Rod East Fellowship Award – Jo Kaeding from Adelaide Hills for “Opening Public Libraries to children with special needs and their families”.  We look forward to hearing her project outcomes at the 2016 event.