After witnessing the success of the first-ever NYC Neighborhood Library Awards, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation partnered with the Charles H. Revson Foundation to bring New Yorkers another opportunity to honor and celebrate their local libraries. On November 7th, 2014, Stelios Vasilakis, director of programs and strategic initiatives at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, and Revson Foundation President, Julie Sandorf, joined WNYC's Brian Lehrer to officially launch the second annual Awards season.
The second Awards continued to celebrate and highlight the crucial role that each of New York's over 200 libraries play in its community. The Awards – unique in honoring individual branch libraries – aimed to recognize branches in New York City’s three library systems: the Brooklyn Public Library; Queens Library; and the New York Public Library, which operates branches in the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island.
On May 20th, 2015, the Revson Foundation announced the five winners of the 2nd Annual NYC Neighborhood Library Awards. The winners emerged from more than 13,000 nominations by New Yorkers, who nominated every single branch in New York City’s three library systems. The nomination process took place during a five-week period in the winter of 2014 and was promoted publicly with the crucial assistance of WNYC’s Brian Lehrer Show, Revson's media partner.
SELECTION PROCESS
After a philanthropic review committee selected ten finalists, the five winning libraries were chosen by an esteemed panel of judges: acclaimed authors Maira Kalman, Jonathan Safran Foer, and Jacqueline Woodson; Susan Hildreth, former Director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services; Dutton Children’s Books publisher Julie Strauss-Gabel, and Maya Wiley, Counsel to Mayor Bill de Blasio.
In addition to the five winners of this year’s NYC Neighborhood Library Awards, the other five finalists were presented with checks for $10,000.
THE WINNERS
The following five winning libraries received $20,000 each:
Langston Hughes Library –(Queens)
Mott Haven Library – (Bronx)
New Lots Library – (Brooklyn)
Parkchester Library – (Bronx)
Stapleton Library – (Staten Island)
The five remaining finalists were presented with checks for $10,000 each: Cambria Heights Library, Clinton Hill Library, Jefferson Market Library, Sunnyside Library, and Windsor Terrace Library.
THE AWARDS CEREMONY
The winners and finalists were announced and celebrated at an awards ceremony in midtown Manhattan that was attended by managers and staff of the ten branch libraries, senior leadership from each of the three library systems, trustees and staff from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation and Revson Foundation, members of the judging panel and philanthropic review committee, select library patrons who nominated their branches, and other friends of the libraries.