2003 Winners

The winners of the 2002 John Cotton Dana Library Public Relations Award are:

The Genesee District Library, Flint, Mich. for opening a 3,800 square foot demonstration location inside a busy shopping center to take their services to the people. Since their initial opening, this new location has averaged over 7,000 visitors per month and registered over 2,000 new cardholders.

Guernsey Memorial Library, Norwich, N.Y., for a delightful celebration of the library's Centennial anniversary. The celebration focused on genealogy, local architecture, and history, successfully creating a positive image for the community.

Halifax Regional Library, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada, for its re-designed Summer Reading Program. With a skateboarding dog, Booker T. Beagle, and animal "Book Buddies" for younger children, the program creatively used a consistent graphic identity, a dynamic Web site and targeted marketing to reach the intended audience.

Julia Rogers Library, Goucher College, Baltimore, Md., for the public relations program "25 Years of Jane Austen," designed to bring increased attention to this unique collection. The identification of strategies for the campaign, along with target audiences, was precise and comprehensive, ranging from a resident scholarship to digitizing the collection for access by a worldwide audience.

Library System of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, for its stimulating public awareness campaign promoting the Pennsylvania online world of electronic resources (POWER), which successfully enhanced local resources

Las Vegas-Clark County Library District, Las Vegas, Nevada, for its outstanding public relations campaign celebrating Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. Part of the library district's "Celebrate Cultural Diversity" initiative, the event attracted more than 6,000 people and generated positive media coverage.

Saint Paul Public Library and Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library, Saint Paul, Minnesota, for a multi-faceted public awareness campaign to celebrate the re-opening of their newly renovated historic Central Library.

Sarasota County Library System, Sarasota, Fla., for its successful program "Celebrate Freedom @ your library™" which refocused public attention on how libraries contribute to a free society. This program, developed in answer to the challenges posed by 9/11, helped to erase the doubts raised by that tragic event that were aimed at the very core of what libraries stand for-freedom of information and access for all.

Toronto Public Library, Toronto, Canada for an innovative performing arts lecture series and public relations program that contributed to the city's literary and cultural life while also enhancing the library's community profile.

The John Cotton Dana Award is sponsored by the H. W. Wilson Company and the Library Administration and Management Association (LAMA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA). H. W. Wilson Company and the ALA have jointly sponsored the awards since 1946.