Gale Cengage Learning Financial Development Award recipient named

Contact: Cheryl Malden


Program Officer


312-280-3247


cmalden@ala.org

NEWS


For Immediate Release,


March 29, 2010

CHICAGO - The Princeton Public Library in Princeton, N.J., is the winner of the prestigious Gale Cengage Learning Financial Development Award. The award is presented annually to a library organization for exhibiting meritorious achievement in carrying out a project to secure new funding resources for a public or academic library. The award includes $2,500 donated by Gale Cengage, Inc. and will be presented on Tuesday, June 29, at the American Library Association conference in Washington, D.C.

When advised of the library’s successful award application, Leslie Burger, executive director of the Princeton Public Library said, “It is because of the extraordinary volunteer effort from the Friends of the Princeton Public Library that we have turned what could have been a disastrous financial situation into an opportunity for new income for the library. Their commitment to support the library’s new collection purchases motivated them to succeed. The Friends now provide close to 70 percent of the annual revenue needed to purchase library materials each year.”

The Friends of the Princeton Public Library moved a small, inconspicuous book sale from a corner of the library into a larger space that had once been their library gift shop. This highly visible space allowed enough room for an attractive retail arrangement of materials by category, providing a pleasant browsing experience for shoppers. Not only did donations of books to the library increase, but the number of volunteers working on the store also increased as word spread about the fun of sorting through the donations to choose items for sale. Annual sales increased from $5,000 from gift store sales to $70,000 from the book sale.

“The Gale Cengage Learning award jury members were impressed that the Friends of the Princeton Public Library were able to create an impressive new revenue stream in a down economy by turning an unsuccessful library gift shop into a vibrant used book store,” said Eloise May, chair of the award jury.

Members of the 2010 Gale Cengage Learning Financial Development Award Jury are: Eloise May, Arapahoe Library District; Jonathan Miller, Rollins College, Winter Park, Fla.; Julie A. Cummins, Canandaigua, N.Y.; and Norman Horrocks, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.




The Gale Cengage Financial Learning Financial Development Award will be presented on Tuesday, June 29, at the ALA Annual Conference in Washington, D.C. The deadline for submission of applications for the 2011 Gale Cengage Financial Learning Financial Development Award is Dec 1. Guidelines and application forms are available on the ALA Web site:
http://www.ala.org, in the Awards & Grants section under Professional Recognition.