IMLS Honors Two Libraries

Libraries in Puerto Rico & Flint, MI, cited for their service to children

By Debra Lau Whelan -- School Library Journal, 12/1/2004

Although the Mayagüez Children's Library in Puerto Rico and the Flint Public Library in Michigan are thousands of miles apart, they have something special in common: they're recipients of the 2004 National Awards for Museum and Library Service, the nation's highest honor for extraordinary public service.

Located on the far western tip of Puerto Rico, the Mayagüez library opened in 1991 and remains the only nonprofit, independent, and bilingual public library serving young people on the entire island, says Executive Director Juan Carlos Gaston. In a city where school libraries are rare and more than half the population of about 100,000 lives below the poverty line, the library has managed to bring tutoring services, storytelling, computers, and special mentoring programs to students in 58 public and 13 private schools—with five full-time staffers and an annual $35,000 budget funded solely from grants and donations.

"There's really no strong tradition of reading here," says Gaston. "Our mission is to change that culture, and we're already making a difference." The library has come a long way: it started out with two bags of donated books and now boasts a collection of 35,000 bilingual fiction and nonfiction titles, 14 computers, and a special needs center for visually impaired and handicapped children.

On any given day, kids visiting the Flint Public Library will find a range of programs, from teen author visits and essay contests to programs on racism and sex education. The library, which serves a population of 125,000 mainly African-American residents, is known for drawing crowds to its innovative programs, which serve families and help to unify the town's diverse population, says library spokesperson Wanda Harden.

For the past 19 years, the library has celebrated Martin Luther King, Jr. Day with much fanfare, drawing more than 500 people this year to listen to music and watch dramatic presentations of King's "I Have a Dream" speech. In partnership with a teen parenting and pregnancy prevention organization, the library created an award-winning program called "Love & Sex: Making Choices" that included a national exhibit of photographs and audio stories about teen pregnancy by photographer Michael Nye. The library also purchased 500 copies of Like Sisters on the Homefront (Puffin, 1998) by Rita Williams-Garcia and provided teachers with a curriculum guide based on the teen pregnancy novel. "Begin with Books" helps train parents in the art of storytelling, and "One Book, One Community" encourages hundreds of children to share the experience of reading the same story. "The Flint Public Library exemplifies a keystone community institution," says Robert Martin, director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services, which awarded both libraries with $10,000 each.