Gwinnett County Public Library awarded the John Cotton Dana Public Relations Award

The Gwinnett County Public Library was awarded the 2009 John Cotton Dana Public Relations Award. Announcement was made at the American Library Association (ALA) Mid-Winter Conference in Denver on Saturday, January 24.

Since 1946, the John Cotton Dana Library Public Relations Award recognizes and honors outstanding achievement in library public relations. It is considered to be the most prestigious of all library awards in the field of public relations and marketing.

"We are very proud and honored to be a recipient of the John Cotton Dana Award. It is a tribute to the success of the Gwinnett Reading Festival and to the hard work of our new public relations director, Michelle Long. This accomplishment was possible because of the enormous support received from Library staff and volunteers, partners and sponsors, and the community," said Nancy Stanbery-Kellam, director of Gwinnett County Public Library.

Gwinnett County Public Library received the award for "a brilliantly planned and implemented reading festival (Gwinnett Reading Festival 2008) with more than 50 authors that attracted more than 4,500 people…An impressive variety of communications mediums were used to spread the word about the event including  utdoor ads, blogs and electronic and print media."

The award is sponsored by the H.W. Wilson Company, the H.W. Wilson Foundation and the Library Leadership and Management Association, a division of the American Library Association.