FPL is Runner Up for Library of the Year 2003

FAYETTEVILLE PUBLIC LIBRARY RANKED AMONG THE NATION'S BEST BY LIBRARY JOURNAL

The Fayetteville Public Library has been named among the nation's best libraries, having received Special Mention as part of the Gale Group/Library Journal 2003 Library of the Year Award announcement. This is one of the nation's most prestigious library awards, and was announced in the June 15,20003 issue of Library Journal.

The Library of the Year Award honors the library that most profoundly demonstrates outstanding community service. Criteria for the award includes:

* Service to the community

* Creativity and innovation in developing specific community programs or a dramatic increase in library usage

* Leadership in creating programs that can be emulated by other libraries

"We are delighted to have received Special Mention for Library of the Year. It's a much-coveted award," said Louise Schaper, Executive Director of the Fayetteville Public Library.

"The library staff, with the support of the library board, Friends of the FPL, FPL Foundation, our dedicated volunteers, the City staff and elected officials have worked hard to give our citizens the best possible return for their investment in library services," continued Schaper.

"One thing we're very proud of is our ability to provide maximum return for the dollar. Of the other libraries on the list, all of them have much higher per-capita funding than Fayetteville . For fiscal year 2001 their funding ranged between $60 and $108 per-capita, while we came in at just under $25 per-capita for the year," said Steven Thomas , Director of Operations.

“The fact that we've been able to join such illustrious company is impressive, but there's still so much more to be done," continued Thomas.

The focus for the Fayetteville Public Library has been to expand and improve service to the community. Since 1997, our collection size has nearly doubled and program attendance has more than tripled. In addition, circulation has gone from around 270,000 to a projected 650,000, the number of cardholders has increased from around 15,000 to about 34,000, and the number of visitors has skyrocketed from 192,000 to a projected 605,000.

“We have spent 5 1/2 years now working to bring our library in-line with the expectations of a college town community. We'll continue to work hard to make this happen," Schaper said.

"We know with our new building, our 150 percent increase in use over the past six years and this Special Mention for Library of the Year, that the Fayetteville Public Library is on its way to meeting its benchmarks.

"All I want to say to the community is 'thank you' for letting us serve you and help build an information savvy community! We are thrilled to have received an award of this magnitude! A big thank you goes to our great staff members, our City government and citizens, the Library Board, the Library Foundation, the Friends of FPL and our donors, volunteers, supporters and 34,000 cardholders."

The Library of the Year award for 2003 went to Las Vegas-Clark County Library District, of Las Vegas , Nev.

The following is the text for the 2003 Library of the Year Special Mention:

"Exceptional libraries exist nationwide, as illustrated by the difficulty of choosing from many submitted for this year's honor. Several of them feature the service philosophy and dedication to community that signify a Library of the Year. As we can only choose one library for our award, we use this space (the category of special mention) to acknowledge those others we feel are exemplars in the field," John N. Berry III, Editor-in-Chief, Library Journal.

Other libraries across the nation to receive special mention this year include:

Cerritos Library - Cerritos , Calif.

Denver Public Library - Denver , Colo.

King County Library System - Issaquah , Wash.

Worthington Libraries - Worthington , Ohio