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[Music]
the national medal for Museum and

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Library Services is the nation's highest
honor for libraries and museums that are

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serving their communities in exceptional
ways Pierce County Library System

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executive director Neil Park and
Community member Joe Cruz traveled to

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Washington DC from Tacoma Washington to
receive the national medal and spoke to

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imls about how the library impacts the
community well I think Pierce County

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library system as wanting to be making a
difference in our community and where

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one of the things in our overall vision
statement is to create a community where

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knowledge grows but to also to make a
difference one person at a time and what

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we want to be able to do also is to
focus on the needs of the particular

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community and what is it that they value
and what they care about and also for

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particular populations in the community
we pay attention to who is out there and

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what the needs are so for instance when
the econ economy turned down we suddenly

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had droves of people coming into the
library looking for jobs and so we paid

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attention and we figured out what it was
that they needed and then we worked to

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provide it when we were noticing that
there were a large number of people who

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spoke Spanish and Korean in the
community and that the population was

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growing we actually got a grant and we
researched working with the community

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what was their what were their needs one
of the things that I am the most

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passionate about is early learning I was
a children's librarian and I always say

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to everybody that the library is the
only free place in the community for

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children under the age of five and I
think that this is a place where we have

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the opportunity to make a difference I
have a home daycare

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business so there is amazing amount of
resources for um what I'm trying trying

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to build curriculum for my little ones
uh lots of books that I have every week

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and um to read and for them to ask me
questions about so that we can study it

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further um also uh there's classes there
that you can take as a as a um child

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care provider that are free from the
library and they help

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you understand early literacy they help
you um

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um they help you teach children in a
kid-friendly way now we know that the

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first five years of life are the most
important years in the development of a

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child's brain and we knew that that was
a time to make an impact if you want to

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help young children develop their brains
and their parents get them pre- ready

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you've got to go where the child is and
you've got to help the people that are

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actually working with the child so you
know we work we work with schools at the

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older level but it's extremely important
for child care providers because most of

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them have not gone to college and they
actually need certification on a regular

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basis so teaching them classes and
having giving them that certification

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that credit is really really important
so it really was a way of saying if we

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want to help get children School ready
the only way we're going to be able to

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do that is through a child care provider
the Pierce County Library has this

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toolbox that they've given um to I
believe it was I want to say 10 daycare

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providers and in this toolbox it was a
big tub full of things like musical

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instruments and whiteboards and puppets
and

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blocks and um all of these things were
put out in the in the

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playroom along with books and along with
the games that they provide you in the

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newsletters and this is how we teach the
children how to read and how to write by

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fishing for letters the kind I mean what
Joe is telling you is really what is

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what the situation is for many family
child care providers Joe's at home alone

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with his children and can't get out and
so it's really really important to be

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able to support them the early Achievers
program is a program that encourages

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daycare providers teaches daycare
providers mentors daycare providers

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uh in a way that
will help us to better prepare children

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for school and um me only being a
daycare provider for two and a half

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years it's it it was very overwhelming
had it not been for my technical

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assistant early Achievers program um
gives you a technical assistant and she

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walks with you through all of the
different

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components um to help you really get
ready get these kids ready for school

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we're about books and reading and about
the community and I think that I think

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that serving and early learning and
serving children is really a core

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service that we pride now winning the
imls medal is totally amazing it says to

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us that we are making a difference in
our community what I like about the

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award is that it is focused on the on
the community and service to the

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community and that talks about
Innovation and going sort of the extra

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mile and talks about how we make a
difference in the community with

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individuals and with families and this
just tells us that we've been doing a

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good job and everybody in the library
feels that way too and I ALS also I

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think it brings together the partners
that we've worked with over the years

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tells us about the the strength of the
relationships that we have worked made

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and developed in order to be able to
reach those communities more effectively