Awards
🏆2021 Jane Smith Literacy Award
🏆2021 Library of Congress
🏆Star Library Status
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Northeast Regional Library Wins 2021 Jane Smith Literacy Award
Jackson, Miss. – Northeast Regional Library, headquartered in Corinth, has received the 2021 Jane Smith Literacy Award, awarded by the Mississippi Library Commission and the Mississippi Center for the Book, for their Suggested Family Activities (SFA) program. SFA is a family literacy initiative designed by Northeast Regional Library as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The SFA program offers a variety of activities—arts and crafts, games, outdoor activities, STEM experiments, community engagement, or cooking—to build early literacy skills. The SFA offerings are posted on Northeast Regional’s website, but also printed out to distribute to patrons without internet availability. Activities do not need special supplies or equipment and are designed to require common materials found in the home. The activities also keep in mind social distancing.
The Jane Smith Literacy Award recognizes an existing literacy program that is outside of traditional library service, is innovative in nature, and is in a Mississippi public library. The award is named for longtime Mississippi library champion Jane Smith, who sought to improve library service in the state for over 30 years. The winner of Mississippi’s Jane Smith Literacy Award is nominated for a Library of Congress State Literacy Award.
“We’re excited to award the Jane Smith Literacy Award to a library that adapted quickly and creatively to the pandemic,” said Mississippi Center for the Book Coordinator Tracy Carr. “Suggested Family Activities was a way to keep families safely connected to literacy and each other while at home, but Northeast Regional has continued this outstanding program and made it a permanent part of their library’s public service.”
For more information on Northeast Regional’s Suggested Family Activities program, visit https://nereg.lib.ms.us/family-activities/ or contact Dee Hare, Director, at dee@nereg.lib.ms.us.
The Mississippi Center for the Book, housed at the Mississippi Library Commission, is the state affiliate of the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, which promotes books, libraries, literacy, and reading.
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Northeast Regional Library Receives Library of Congress Award
Jackson, Miss – The Mississippi Library Commission is pleased to announce that Northeast Regional Library (NERL), headquartered in Corinth, has received a Library of Congress State Literacy Award for their Suggested Family Activities (SFA) program. SFA is a family literacy initiative designed by Northeast Regional Library as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The SFA program offers a variety of activities—arts and crafts, games, outdoor activities, STEM experiments, community engagement, or cooking—to build early literacy skills. The SFA offerings are posted on Northeast Regional’s website, but also printed out to distribute to patrons without internet availability.
Dee Hare, NERL Library Director, stated, “The COVID-19 pandemic has forced public libraries to expand and, in many cases, reinvent, how to serve their communities outside of the library’s physical building. I am honored by this recognition from the Library of Congress for our Suggested Family Activities project and hope that all types of families will use our ideas to enrich their lives, while also finding fun and meaningful ways to strengthen their family bonds.”
The Library of Congress State Literacy Awards Program recognizes organizations or programs that have made outstanding and innovative contributions to promoting literacy and reading in the local community or state. Organizations are nominated by the state affiliates of the Library of Congress Center for the Book. The Mississippi Library Commission (MLC), the state affiliate for the Library of Congress Center for the Book, submits the nomination based on the winner of the Jane Smith Literacy Award, a state literacy award issued annually. The Library of Congress State Literacy Awards Program is made possible through the generous support of David M. Rubenstein. For questions, contact literacyawards@loc.gov.
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Star Library Status Awarded to Northeast Regional Library
2017-2018
2018-2019
Jackson, Miss – The Mississippi Library Commission (MLC) recently named 12 public library systems as Star Libraries based on their statistics for fiscal year 2019 (October 1, 2018-September 30, 2019). The library systems are separated into four categories by expenditures that they report on the annual Public Library Survey, required by the Institute of Museum and Library Services. MLC then compares libraries’ per capita rates in these four areas:
- Mississippi Measures – this is a combination of interlibrary loan use, statewide database use, number of registered users, and items withdrawn.
- Circulation per capita
- Total program attendance per capita
- Public Internet terminal uses per capita
Star Library status is decided by recognizing the three highest scoring libraries in each of the four expenditure categories. Star Library status is awarded to the following libraries for their FY19 statistics:
Under $300,000
- Noxubee County Public Library System
- Covington County Library System
- Pine Forest Regional Library System
$300,000 – $599,999
- Starkville-Oktibbeha County Public Library System
- Pearl River County Library System
- Sunflower County Library System
$600,000 – $999,999
- Columbus-Lowndes Public Library System
- Northeast Regional Library System
- Lincoln-Lawrence-Franklin Regional Library
$1,000,000 and above
- First Regional Library System
- Mid-Mississippi Regional Library System
- Jackson-George Regional Library System
The winning libraries received a certificate and a digital Star Library badge to feature on their website. For further information on Mississippi’s Star Library Star program, contact Lacy Ellinwood, MLC Library Development Director, at lellinwood@mlc.lib.ms.us
