John Sessions Memorial Award presented
The Local History & Genealogy Department of the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library was recognized as the 2014 recipient of the John Sessions Memorial Award by the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA).
The honor, first announced in the spring, was bestowed last evening at RUSA’s Annual Achievement Awards in Las Vegas, Nevada, the site of the 2014 ALA Annual Conference & Exhibition (June 26-July 1). Present to accept the John Sessions Memorial Award were Clyde Scoles, Library Director, George Tucker, Library Trustee and Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the Greater Northwest Ohio AFL-CIO, and Meg Delaney, Main Library Manager.
Established in 1980, the award recognizes a library or library system which works closely with the labor community and consequently raises awareness of the history, contribution and development of the labor movement in the United States. The late John Sessions was co-chair of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO)/ALA Joint Committee on Library Service to Labor Groups. Sessions was also an assistant director of the AFL-CIO Department of Education.
The local history department was selected for its extensive efforts in building an ongoing legacy recognizing the labor community, according to the RUSA official website.
“We are very proud of our outreach efforts to local labor unions, our special labor collection, exhibits and displays of the area and national labor movement, and of our Rogowski-Kaptur Labor History Room, which houses materials with a focus on Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan labor history but also includes materials on national labor history,” saidJill Clever, manager of the Local History department, located on the third level of Main Library, 325 Michigan St.
The honorable U.S. Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (OH-9) helped to secure federal funding for the Labor History room, dedicated in 2001, which provides researchers with private space to peruse the library’s collection of photos, books on union and union history, newspaper clippings and letters documenting the region’s rich union history. Many Labor History room materials are purchased through the Library Legacy Foundation, with proceeds from an annual event titled, “Labor Loves the Library.”
Rep. Kaptur said she is pleased to recognize and congratulate the Library and its “outstanding” Local History department on being the recipient of the national John Sessions Memorial Award.
“Toledo has been part of the bedrock of the united labor movement for centuries. Our community proudly and humbly remembers on whose shoulders we stand,” said Rep. Kaptur when the award was first announced. “The Toledo-Lucas County Public Library has been a leader in cataloguing and enshrining the epic struggles of our labor history. The Library has been the ‘keeper of the flame’ that burns in the hearts of our community’s working men and women and carries their legacy to the world beyond.”
As the John Sessions Memorial Award recipient, Local History department officials are now scheduled to receive $1,000 and a plaque funded by the Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO.
Press Release Contact Name: Rhonda Sewell
Press Release Contact Email: [email protected]
Organization Name: Toledo-Lucas County Public Library
Organization Address: Toledo, OH