By Press Release

The Library was presented with three state awards by the Virginia Public Library Directors’ Association last week at its annual conference: Outstanding Service Innovation for the Valley View e-Branch library; Outstanding Adult Program for the Library’s popular “Emerging Artists” series; and Outstanding Cooperative Program with Other Libraries and Agencies for “Renovate Roanoke.”

The e-Branch library at Valley View Mall has an average of 2,200 visitors a month, and averages 25-30 participants a week at its story hour. The “Emerging Artists” series, held the first Thursday of the month at the Main Library, averages between 125-200 in attendance each month. The “Renovate Roanoke” home and renovation program attracted over 600 citizens last October. Because of its popularity, “Renovate Roanoke” will be held again this year on Oct. 10 and 11.

The e-Branch library has been recognized with two additional awards: a Premier Visual Award and a 2008 Visual Victories Award. In February 2008, the Second Annual Premier Visual Awards were presented to 12 malls at the annual CBL Specialty Retail Conference in Chattanooga, Tenn. At the awards ceremony, Valley View Mall was honored with the Best Kiosk award for the City of Roanoke’s e-Branch library. Winners were selected for outstanding visual presentation at CBL malls in 2007. Out of 105 entries, five finalists made it to the conference voting process in each category. The entries were judged on creativity, functionality and appearance.

Specialty Retail Report, the industry magazine supporting the international specialty retail community, in conjunction with CBL Corporate Specialty Retail Department, presented a Visual Victories Award to Roanoke Public Libraries and Valley View Mall. The Library was one of 21 winners chosen out of thousands of international entries for the 11th Annual Visual Victories Awards, which celebrates industry excellence in visual merchandising. The Library won this award for the innovative use of retail space providing services at the new Valley View e-Branch library. These services include remote lockers for item pickup, a puppet theatre, bookdrop, and a custom informational kiosk.

This year’s winners were officially announced live at SPREE, the Specialty Retail Entrepreneur Expo & Conference, held in mid-April in Las Vegas.

The Library also was selected to receive the Neighborhoods USA (NUSA) Notable Award for its Oral History Initiative, and its outstanding contributions and efforts in building the neighborhood movement in our community. The NUSA Notable Award was established by the NUSA Board of Directors in 1988 “to recognize those who have given of themselves and their organization unselfishly, as a ‘special friend’ to make their neighborhood and community a better place to live, work, and raise families.” The award will be presented on May 23 at the 33rd Annual Conference on Neighborhood Concerns in Hampton.