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Language: en

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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 walk Keegan Public Library

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executive director Richard Lee and
Community member Diana Alvi traveled to

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Washington from Wan Illinois to receive
the national medal and spoke to imls

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about how the library impacts the
community well the Wan Public Library is

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has been a public library in wagan for
115

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years and um we've taken kind of a
different tact than what is normally the

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way that public libraries go and to us
um it was decided through what we've

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heard in the community that we really
needed to be a support for Education

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being the Nimble organization that we
are we got together and repurposed 2200

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square ft into Early Learning Center
that primarily got kids ready for

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kindergarten by whether it was knowing
primary colors putting things in groups

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of 10 a letter recognition so it's not
just the library with the books but the

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emphasis really on on reading and
whatever reading is population wise you

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know we're about 990,000 and it is
heavily Latino about a year ago I guess

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we hired an engagement and Outreach
person

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and um her goal was really to put
together this core of ambassadors to go

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out into the community and find out what
what they needed and bring that

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information back to us and um the
promoturist was born from that I have

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worked as a promotor the promotora is
responsible for going out into the

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community and advocating on behalf of
the library and letting the citizens

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know what is available in the library
and it starts with the very Basics about

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um obtaining a library card what types
of materials are available in a library

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often times the community Latino
Community isn't familiar with uh

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libraries that we don't have them in
Mexico so you have to educate them about

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the library and to let them know it's a
free service and it has a wealth of um

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materials there that are available for
any need that they might have and then

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find out from the community what is it
that you need what is it what need do

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you have that isn't being met and what
is stopping you from advancing what is

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stopping you from progressing here in
the community um is it GED classes is it

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ESL classes is it um computer literacy
classes and then try to find a way to

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break down that barrier we took the
emphasis off the books a little bit and

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I did that reluctantly because to me
going through Library school and

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everything else you really
um that that was your your measurement

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for success by your circulation and in a
city of our size I know how many books

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that they should be circulating and
we're nowhere near that and I'm okay

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with that because now we found out that
we have this other need that we can

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really reach and to me if we're we're
only successful when our citizens are

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successful whatever they want to do
whether they want to get a better job or

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a job whether they want to go back and
get their GED whether they want to um

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finish school or whatever it is we're
we're there to help them well I can

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speak personally about the impact that
it's having in our community by the

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voices that of the citizens that come
back to our ESL classes I know that I

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have had personal experience with um my
students coming back and saying I was

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able to ask for a raise or to ask for a
promotion at their job because now they

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are able to communicate better at their
job or I was able to attend my first

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parent teacher conference and those
students are so proud because they could

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ask the teachers questions about their
own uh children so sometimes it's very

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basic uh needs that are being met but
they come back and they are just so darn

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proud of themselves for having
accomplished that it's been very

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successful for us and um we're setting
our our sites on the entire Community

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not just the Latino but African-American
and um all

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demographics I would I would think one
thing that makes us special is that we

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are I'm goingon to use that Nimble word
again when we see a need out there or we

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find a need the ambassadors bring back
something that says you know hey this is

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a need that's in the community that no
one else is is really addressing here we

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really take action and we do it without
any extra funds really um our budget's

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been flat for 3 years and we find a way
to make it happen