Novi Public Library Wins 2011 State Librarian's Excellence Award

-Submitted by the Michigan Department of Education

The is the recipient of the 2011 State Librarian’s Excellence Award for superior customer service, State Librarian Nancy Robertson announced Wednesday.

The Library of Michigan Foundation annually gives this honor, which includes a trophy and $2,000 in privately-raised funds used to enhance library service, to one Michigan library. Robertson presented the award during the Michigan Library Association annual conference in Kalamazoo. 

Julie Farkas, director of Novi Public Library said, "It is both an honor and privilege to receive the State Librarian's Excellence Award. Our library works hard every day to be a destination place and information gateway for its community. Being honored with this award validates that the services, resources and programs we are providing is making a positive impact on our great community."

Larry Kilgore, Novi Library Board President said, “The Library of the Year Award is very exciting for the Novi community! This award is the result of a combination of great leadership over the past eight years on the part of City Council, the Library Board and the Library Administration, plus an ongoing commitment to service excellence by everyone at the library.” 

Novi's standout service

Robertson acknowledged that the selection process for the awards is always extremely difficult because all of the nominated libraries are worthy of recognition. As always, she explained, it is illuminating and inspiring to see what so many excellent libraries are doing to serve their users and their communities.

“Each year, Michigan’s libraries have persevered and continue to serve their patrons and their communities with vigor and with vision, even with dwindling funding and staffing reductions,” Robertson said. “The 2011 award nominations demonstrate that this year is no exception. Michigan’s libraries of all types focus on what their unique communities need and, in continuing to meet those evolving needs, are essential to the fabric of Michigan’s communities and success.” 

Novi Public Library is a Class 6 library – the largest of the six size classes for public libraries. With input from community focus groups in mind, they recently built a new state of the art facility that has gained national attention. Its programming and services are built upon the self-perception as “A Gem in Our Community – providing the resources and programs to support the educational, cultural, informational and recreational needs of our diverse community.”

While they have made enhancements to their facilities and services, including green initiatives, this library focuses on cost-effectiveness in all areas. They have maintained their fund balance in these tough financial times. They engaged in fund-raising campaigns for many aspects of their physical improvements, and they raised an additional $10,000 for the library’s youth collections during an auction event.  The self-service components they’ve added save personnel costs and create efficiencies that have allowed a shift of employees to different tasks that could not have otherwise been addressed.

The Novi Public Library has a 24-hour turnaround for patron comments and concerns. They listen to their community members with an impressive result: In 2008 a National Citizen Survey was compiled for the City of Novi and the library received a rating of 84 percent for its perception of the public library services by the city’s residents. When the survey was repeated in 2010, a positive perception of the library was recorded by 94 percent of the residents.

Selection criteria

Criteria for the State Librarian's Excellence Award are:

• demonstrating that the library provides superior service to its customers and community in a cost-effective manner, with a can-do attitude and by always delivering on promises; and,
• demonstrating the library's commitment to high standards of customer service through staff dealings with customers and the service community.

Bayliss Public Library of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, and the Van Wylen Library of Hope College in Holland, Michigan, each received a Library of Michigan Foundation Citation of Excellence, including a $500 prize and a trophy.

The State Librarian’s Excellence Award is sponsored by the Roger and June Mendel Fund of the Library of Michigan Foundation. Gifts from Martin L. Gibbs and Carole Sorenson and from Elaine M. Logan supported the citations of excellence.

This year’s State Librarian’s Excellence Award recipients were selected by a committee including the state librarian, the executive director of the Library of Michigan Foundation, a Library of Michigan reference librarian, a teacher/librarian from the Birmingham Public Schools, the library director of Mott Community College, the director of Adrian Public Library, and the assistant director of the Muskegon Area District Library.