The Polk County Public Library (PCPL) won two awards at a recent North Carolina Public Library Director’s Association meeting. PCPL won an award for Outstanding Adult Programming for Small Libraries for the Nina Simone Celebration (coordinated through Friends of the Library and FOL chair Sharon Zink) and an Outstanding Promotion Program for Small Libraries with the “Make a Splash” summer reading program (coordinated by children’s librarian Joy Sharp). Interim library director Cindy Nanney attended the meeting in Chapel Hill and accepted the awards on behalf of the library.

“Both awards show great examples of our library system’s creative programming, cost-effective promotion strategies, and teamwork with local organizations,” said Tracey Daniels, community outreach specialist.

Award for PCPL Nina Simone Celebration:

Author Nadine Cohodas, author of several other biographies such as “Queen: The Life and Music of Dinah Washington,” “Spinning Blues into Gold: The Chess Brothers and the Legendary Chess Record” and “The Band Played Dixie: Race and the Liberal conscience at Old Miss” published “Princess Noire: The Tumultuous Reign of Nina Simone” in 2009.

In her biography of Simone, Cohodas gave credit to several individuals in Polk County (including the Polk County Public Library) for assistance with the process of organizing materials for the book.

Festivities for the Nina Simone Celebration began on Sunday, Feb. 21, with the unveiling of Zenos Frudakis’ Nina Simone Sculpture that graces downtown Tryon as a part of the Nina Simone project honoring this great music legend.

Working in close tandem with several local organizations, including the Tryon Bookshelf and the Nina Simone Foundation, the PCPL’s Friends of the Library hosted the author’s presentation to more than 70 people on Feb. 23, 2010. Cohodas’ presentation focused on her writing and research process. With flyers, press releases and social network marketing, the FOL and the PCPL had a most successful event.

Award for PCPL Summer Reading promotion:

Children’s librarian Joy Sharp wanted to make the PCPL’s annual Children’s Summer Reading Program unique and put a “local” spin on the campaign. Working with a college senior who was putting together her final portfolio, Sharp oversaw the creation of this unique flier for the library.

Taking a picture that Sharp had of her own son at the beach, she was able to create an eye-catching product. Instantly people recognized Andy Sharp as the boy buried up to his neck in sand and this stirred up a great deal of interest in all of the programs the library had to offer.

For more information regarding future PCPL programs and promotions, contact Tracey Daniels at tdaniels@polklibrary.org.