The Friday Follow-up: Grass Roots Award Recognizes Alfred & Dundee Projects

The mission of Southern Tier Library System’s Outreach Services program is to ensure all area citizens receive quality library service through equal access to a broad range of information and library materials.
 
As Outreach Consultant, Keturah Cappadonia leads this initiative for STLS. Since her organizational start in April 2017, she has begun to transform the way we approach community connections. She has done this by coordinating relevant professional development workshops, facilitating library and community agency partnerships and being a physical presence in our five county region by popping-up at events.
 
In addition to mindful librarianship, Keturah spearheads our Coordinated Outreach Services Advisory Council (COSAC). This group is made-up of representatives from various agencies throughout the Southern Tier. Their charge is to determine how best to spend Outreach Mini-Grant funds on high impact library projects and recognize the efforts of local librarians and advocates.
 
This year, Keturah and her dedicated COSAC group, identified multiple projects worthy of the 2017 Grass Roots Award. Several individuals and approaches were considered, however, two were noticeably outstanding.
 
Keturah had this to say about one of the 2017 recipients…
 
“Jerry Lange of Dundee, Yates County, is receiving a 2017 Grass Roots Award because he has worked to make local history information available to all of the coordinated outreach populations, but particularly to seniors and the geographically isolated. Jerry attends numerous presentations of local history throughout the region and films them. He then creates DVD copies of these presentations for several area libraries, including Penn Yan, Dundee, Branchport, Hammondsport, and Watkins Glen.

Jerry pays all the costs associated with the production of these films and donates his time and the DVDs to the libraries. To date he has produced DVDs on over 55 topics including The Dundee Boat Company, The Penn Yan Boat Company, Geology of the Finger Lakes, the life of Susan B. Anthony, Exploring the Burned-Over District, and the History of the Chemung Canal.”
 
She also highlighted COSAC’s second award-winning initiative at an Allegany County member library…
 
“The Alfred Box of Books Library in Alfred is receiving a 2017 Grass Roots Award in recognition of the program they developed and implemented during the past year to make welcome LGBTQ persons into their library and into the Alfred-area community through the building of a collection featuring characters identifying as LGBTQ and providing programming at the library to bring attention to issues surrounding the LGBTQ community.
 
 
 
Library Director Melanie Miller developed and nurtured partnerships with Alfred State College’s Center for Inclusion, Equity, and Title IX, the Alfred University Spectrum Club and its faculty advisors, and administrators and counseling staff from the public K-12 school system. Through these partnerships and using its place in the community as a gathering space and resource center for teens, the Alfred Box of Books Library was able to help provide guidance to the local school district as it began a discussion with students who wanted to form a Gay Straight Alliance.”
 
Southern Tier Library System takes pride in strengthening bridges and building new ones within our communities. The efforts of Keturah Cappadonia, the Coordinated Outreach Services Advisory Council, Jerry Lange of Dundee and Melanie Miller of the Alfred Box of Books are fine examples of STLS’ Outreach Services mission. We thank them for their conscious dedication.
 
Have a great weekend STLS community members!
 
Warmest Regards
 
Brian Hildreth, Executive Director
Southern Tier Library System
 
Read past Friday Follow-ups: http://www.stls.org/blog