Lucius Beebe Memorial Library and the Assistant Directors' Forum!

The H.W. Wilson Library Staff Development Grant is an annual award given to one library organization nationally whose application demonstrates the greatest merit for a program of staff development, designed to further the goals and objectives of the library organization.

The H.W. Wilson Award was received this year by the Lucius Beebe Memorial Library for the "Me and My Shadow" peer-to-peer information sharing program. The program was developed to bring new eyes, ideas, and efficiencies to the ways the staff at each involved library works.

The initial program concept was developed by the Assistant Director (Liz Doucett) at Beebe Library. She is a member of the Assistant Directors' Forum, started and run by the Northeast Massachusetts Regional Library System (NMRLS). Liz presented the peer-to-peer information sharing concept to the Assistant Directors' Forum to determine interest in the idea. The group was intrigued by the concept and three other Forum participants (Elizabeth Dickinson, Reading Public Library; Nancy Ryan, Lynnfield Public Library; and Mary Behrle, NMRLS) volunteered to aid in further development of the concept in an effort to get broader participation among more of the member libraries. As a result of the support and interest of the NMRLS Assistant Directors' Forum, the initial program involvement grew to include 13 public libraries within NMRLS.

The award, consisting of $3,500 and a 24k gold-framed citation, will be presented at the American Library Association Annual Conference in June in New Orleans. The money will be used for a workshop and the purchase of books for the "Me and My Shadow" participants.

See what our "Shadows" have learned by visiting the "Me and My Shadow" blog: www.nmrlslibraryshadows.blogspot.com/.