[Michlib-l] June B. Mendel Award Winner 2020: Portage Lake District Library

[Norris, Sonya (MDE)]

This week, we'll be highlighting each of the winners of RLC 2020. Today is the June B. Mendel Excellence Award for Small and Rural Library Service. It comes with a $1,000 cash prize. The winner is: Portage Lake District Library.

Director: Dillon Geshel

Service population: circa 11,100
Superiorland co-op
5 full-time, 15 part-time staff

The Portage Lake District Library (PLDL) has become the heart of the rural Upper Peninsula community of Houghton, Portage Township and Hancock, Michigan.
PLDL has refocused its community programming efforts towards hands-on, experiential learning opportunities that leverage unique staff expertise to provide programs for learning and engagement. This initiative has resulted in cooking demos, graphic design and coding classes, do-it yourself slime-making events, and a 7-day arts and ecology expedition to a remote forested island in Lake Superior.
Over the summer, PLDL continued to expand a series of programs hosted at the Downtown Houghton Farmer's Market, a weekly market co-hosted by the PLDL and the City of Houghton co-host a Farmer's Market. The library brings Braille story walks, story time events, scavenger hunts, live music, and Biblio Bistro. BB offered a quick and easy cooking class using fresh produce from the weekly market. In partnership with a Registered Dietician from a local hospital, library staff prepped and cooked meals and provided recipes and dietary information for event attendees.
This year also saw a continuation of Market Bucks, an innovative food voucher program for Summer Reading Program participants. Children and families who finished the reading program were awarded a $5 voucher to the farmer's market, enabling them to buy fresh, local produce while also helping to sustain our local food economy. Over the last three years, Market Bucks has become a staple of their Summer Reading Program.
Through a partnership with the Rabbit Island Foundation, the library launched an artist-in-residence program for area students. Rabbit Island School is a unique, place-based arts and ecology expedition. In July, the library awarded five full scholarships to area high school students who spent a week on the island, reading, writing, painting, sketching, carving spoons, creating natural dye from plants, cooking, fishing, identifying local flora and fauna, and building an island community. In October, the Rabbit Island School participants presented their work at an art exhibit for their peers, families, and public patrons. A packed room of community members attended the exhibit, which included an art display, a documentary film about their experience, and a photo slideshow.
Over the last year, PLDL has also been working with a neighboring school district to revitalize a school public library for students and public patrons. After decades of limited services at the Hancock School Public Library, the school district entered into a contract with PLDL to increase services and resources. Using a nominal amount of contractual revenue, the Hancock Library has been able to add new open hours, hire a dedicated staff, provide oversight from PLDL's MLIS Director Dillon Geshel, and perhaps most importantly, make trained librarians available to students during all hours of the school day. Since PLDL began managing the Hancock library in November of 2018, the overall circulation of library materials has more than doubled; library card sign-ups have more than tripled, and thousands more patrons visited the library compared to the prior year.
In 2019, after the library's recent strategic planning process revealed a pressing need for additional quiet and collaborative work spaces at PLDL, an exciting new resource was also made available to our patrons. A collaboration with Houghton County's first co-working space, 101 Quincy, made a 2-day pass available for checkout to library patrons. Library cardholders could checkout the pass to spend time in a shared, creative workspace designed for individuals and groups who need a place to work. This resource proved to be a great option for self-employed library patrons looking for comfortable, shared workspace.

Please join me in congratulating the staff of the Portage Lake District Library on their FaceBook page<https://www.facebook.com/pldl.org/>.


Sonya Schryer Norris
Library Consultant
Library of Michigan
Michigan Department of Education
517-335-1498
Norriss2 at michigan.gov<mailto:Norriss2 at michigan.gov>

https://michigan.gov/libraryofmichigan
https://mel.org<https://mel.org/>
http://michlibrary.org<http://michlibrary.org/>

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