Welcome again to Page Turn: the Largo Public Library Podcast. Please subscribe and tell your friends!
The Spanish Language Book Review begins at 10:30 and ends at 13:15
The English Language Transcript can be found below
Episode four's Reader's Advisory is The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt. If you like The Sisters Brothers you should also check out: The Hawkline Monster by Richard Brautigan, A Good Man by Guy Vanderhaeghe, and The Age of Gold by H. W. Brands.
My personal favorite Goodreads list The Sisters Brothers is on is You Are The Coolest Person In This Coffee Shop
Today's library tidbit is a Celebration Tidbit.
After celebrating out Centennial in 2016 Library Administration and staff turned our thoughts to further developing and enhancing our library services. With a stronger focus on Community, Outreach, and Partnership, and greater freedom in programming, Library Director Casey McPhee and the library administration team decided to put together a nomination submittal for the Florida Library Association Library of the Year award.
Well I’m happy to announce, if you hadn’t heard already, that Largo Public Library received the Florida Library Association 2018 Library of the Year award at the organization’s annual conference in May. The key considerations for this award are: creativity and/or innovation in programming, expansion and/or enhancement of service to all constituents in the community, and leadership in implementing programs that can be emulated by other libraries. Largo competed with a pool of very worthy libraries.
Nancy Brockman, chairperson of the FLA Awards committee, said “the library was chosen because of its focus on community building, outreach and partnership, which resulted in greater relevancy in the programs and services offered. The exceptional level of professional service provided by this library helped them rise to the top of the bank of worthy nominations.”
In the last 5 years, the library set itself apart by focusing on building community relationships and increasing trust among library users and non-users alike. In 2017, the library re-imagined the possibilities for service and the duties of current staff to establish a community outreach services department with 3 full-time staff and 1 part time staff, enhanced the English Language Learning program by partnering with Pinellas County Schools to host their Adult English Course, started the design of a bookmobile and planned mobile library service. Outreach staff oversaw the State Library of Florida Grant Program for Career Online High School in which staff helped 24 People begin their path to a high school diploma or career readiness, the Welcoming Week and Refugee Home Goods Drive, resulting in over 100 baskets donated to local agencies supporting Largo’s immigrant population, and an expansion of the ongoing English Language Learning One on One Tutoring Program to include Citizenship and Naturalization classes and multi-level English classes from Pinellas County Schools, and an on site tutoring pilot project for employees at a local business.
In order to make these goals a reality and in anticipation of the bookmobile’s arrival in 2018, staff established partnerships with more than a dozen mission aligned local agencies. A campaign to raise funds for the bookmobile and its ongoing operating costs reached the $405,000 point, over 2/3rd of our $600,000 goal! When the bookmobile arrives it will provide access to not only books, CDs, DVDs, and more physical items but will also provide library programming and fun to communities that are unable to reach our building. A new partnership with Pinellas County Schools was established to serve 2,000 meals and snacks to local children as a Summer Breakspot location. Created to fill food needs normally covered in schools, Summer Breakspots are open to all children under the age of 18.
This happened alongside traditional library service in which staff...
