Building Better Communities Awards

2007 Building Better Communities Awards Finalists

Congratulations to the 2007 Building Better Communities Awards 15 finalists! These finalists will be recognized in a special ceremony during the ALA Annual Conference in Washington, D.C. on June 24, 2007, at SirsiDynix Booth #3747. Six of these finalists will be selected to receive US$10,000 each as the 2007 Building Better Communities Awards recipients.

  1. Jacksonville Public Library (Jacksonville, Fla.): Jacksonville Public Library combined the traditional methods for obtaining community input into the strategic planning process with technology tools that expand community participation. This increases the quantity and quality of the input received. This effort replaces traditional point-in-time surveys (phone) that can be costly and written customer comments that are often anecdotal and difficult to statistically verify. http://jpl.coj.net
  2. Alliance Library System (East Peoria, Ill.): A regional library system in central Illinois started a library in the three-dimensional virtual world of Second Life to gain experiential knowledge about providing library services in a virtual world. http://www.alliancelibrarysystem.com
  3. Kankakee Public Library (Kankakee, Ill.): Using "Library 2.0" philosophies, this library is bringing the library to the user, rather than requiring the user to come to the library. Library programs, remote access online databases, IM reference, and other traditional services have been made accessible to home users. The community is invited to participate in social networks via the library by encouraging citizens to tell their stories and share their ideas. http://www.lions-online.org
  4. BOPCRIS Project, University of Southampton Library (Southampton, United Kingdom): Launched on March 23, 2007, at the House of Commons, the BOPCRIS 18th-century parliamentary publications project (based at the University of Southampton), provides the UK academic community with access to 1,400 volumes of core 18th-century official Parliamentary publications that include Parliamentary papers, bills, registers, and journals. http://www.soton.ac.uk/library/, http://www.bopcris.ac.uk/18c/
  5. Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County (Charlotte, N.C.): The Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County developed Learning 2.0 (http://plcmclearning.blogspot.com), an online discovery and learning program to help PLCMC staff gain a comfort level with new and emerging online technologies. While the program began at PLCMC, it has been offered to the library community at large and has been implemented in libraries throughout North America and the world. http://www.plcmc.org
  6. Yarra Plenty Regional Library (Melbourne, Australia): By implementing the "23 Things" program and inviting colleagues from other library services to participate, this library created a learning community and some very proud individuals! Library community learning has been extended through the unconference and the continuing staff development program, Library Worker 2.0. http://www.yprl.vic.gov.au
  7. SUNLINK: Florida Department of Education (Tallahassee, Fla.): SUNLINK uses a variety of technologies to improve access to information to Florida K-12 students, teachers, parents, administrators, and library media specialists. http://www.sunlink.ucf.edu
  8. Shanghai Library (Shanghai, People's Republic of China): Since June 2001, Shanghai Library started to provide One-card-through services among the members of Shanghai Central Library (SCL) system. http://www.library.sh.cn/, http://www.library.sh.cn/english/
  9. Smithsonian Institution Research Information System (SIRIS) (Washington, D.C.): The Smithsonian Institution Research Information System (SIRIS) is a shared database that provides public access to the holdings in the Institution's 20 libraries, 14 archives, and several specialized research databases at the Smithsonian. http://www.siris.si.edu
  10. North Carolina State University Libraries (Raleigh, N.C.): In 2006, the NCSU Libraries implemented a revolutionary search interface for its SirsiDynix Unicorn catalog that is offering tremendous, immediate benefits to its user community. http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/
  11. Carl Shepard Library / Illinois College of Optometry (Chicago, Ill.): The "Open for All" project explores technology with underserved/excluded, special needs, and at-risk users.http://library.ico.edu
  12. Holmesglen Institute of TAFE Information Commons (Chadstone Victoria, Australia ): The lengthy redesign process provided Information Commons staff with valuable experience on how to connect and listen to their clients and how to plan and organize their resources in order to produce worthwhile outcomes. http://www.ic.holmesglen.vic.edu.au
  13. World Health Organization Library (Geneva, Switzerland): The HINARI program, set up by the World Health Organization (WHO), together with major publishers, enables developing countries to gain online access to one of the world's largest collections of biomedical and health literature. http://www.who.int/hinari
  14. Scientific and Technical Information Center (STIC), U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) (Alexandria, Va.): The Virtual EIC provides access to Web-based electronic resources and employs collaboration tools to provide "face-to-face" virtual service between Patent Examiners and STIC librarians, technology training specialists, translators, and other staff members who directly support the patent examination process. STIC's Web site is on the USPTO intranet site and is accessible only to the employees of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
  15. Lincoln Trail Libraries System (Champaign, Ill.): PolyTalk is an innovative service to help Illinois libraries of all types reach out to people with limited English language skills. http://www.lincolntrail.info

SirsiDynix received more than 100 nominations for these awards. An independent committee of library leaders selected the finalists and will choose the six recipients from the group.

For more on the Building Better Communities Awards ceremony and the finalists, please read the press release.