On April 25, the Peabody Awards revealed the list of its 68 nominations for 2023, chosen from a field of 1,100 entries. This year’s contenders include popular TV series such as The Bear, Bluey, and Reservation Dogs, documentaries about Judy Blume and Little Richard, children’s programming, newscasts—and two offerings from public libraries: Milwaukee Public Library’s (MPL) social media streams in the interactive and immersive media category, and Borrowed and Banned, a 10-episode podcast from Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) in the podcast/radio category.

Established in 1940 by a committee of the National Association of Broadcasters, the Peabodys—formally the George Foster Peabody Awards—celebrate top storytellers across television, streaming, radio, and digital media. “There are no set criteria for judging the winners,” the website states. “Peabody Awards recognize stories that illuminate social issues with depth and complexity as much as stories that entertain and inspire through their art or voice.”

Every year, 30 awards are given in the categories of entertainment, documentary, news, podcast and radio, children’s/youth, and public service programming; in 2022, eligibility was expanded to include gaming, interactive journalism, virtual reality, augmented reality, social video, interactive documentary, transmedia storytelling. Special awards are given to individuals for career achievement and institutions for a body of work.

Given those guidelines, it’s no surprise that this year the Peabodys are looking to the stories libraries tell alongside other popular media.

MPL’s TikTok and Instagram streams were launched in 2022, when Library Volunteer Coordinator Fawn Siemsen-Fuchs joined forces with Derek Reilly, MPL data analyst, and Evan Szymkowski, musician and dancer from the library’s accounting team, to create a fun, youth-oriented, and imaginative series of posts to help boost engagement and rebuild in-person visits in the wake of the 2020 pandemic shutdowns. Using memes, contemporary music, and pop culture references, as well as conversations with library users and staff, MPL’s “LibraryTok” and Instagram accounts highlight what libraries offer and help drive enthusiasm among the community’s young people.

“The Milwaukee Public Library’s Peabody Award nomination highlights the power of digital media in building community and showcasing libraries as dynamic, evolving spaces. This initiative was born out of a desire to maintain connections with the public during the pandemic and bring them back into our spaces, using social media to reach younger audiences and educate our community on everything that the library has to offer,” said MPL Community Relations and Engagement Director Melissa Howard. “Instagram/Tiktok provided us a platform to post entertaining videos, which ultimately are meant to spotlight library services, spark meaningful conversations, and offer fresh perspectives on why libraries matter today.”

BPL’s Borrowed and Banned, a library production, tells the story of the war against books in America through conversations with those most impacted—students, library staff, and teachers whose livelihoods are threatened when they speak up, and the writers whose books have been challenged. The 10-episode series includes bonus interviews with three of the most frequently banned and challenged living writers last year: Mike Curato, George M. Johnson, and Maia Kobabe. The series, which debuted in September 2023 to complement BPL’s Books Unbanned initiative, was written and produced by Virginia Marshall, the library’s senior audio producer, with help from librarians Adwoa Adusei and Ali Post and an equity in action grant from the Metropolitan New York Library Council. Goat Rodeo provided production support.

“The Peabody Awards recognize the stories that matter, demonstrating the power of art and reportage in the push for truth, justice, and equity,” said BPL President and CEO Linda E. Johnson in a statement. “We are thrilled to be nominated and, more importantly, to shine a light on those who dare to champion free expression, intellectual freedom, and the right to read.”

The stories that the libraries in Brooklyn and Milwaukee tell may be in the limelight this year, but the Peabody Awards program understands the value of libraries well. The Peabody Awards Collection—housed in the Richard B. Russell Building Special Collections Libraries on the north campus of the University of Georgia—makes up part of the third largest audiovisual archive in the United States. It consists of over 90,000 titles, including radio programs dating from 1940 and television shows from 1948. The collection also holds radio transcription discs, audiotape, 16mm kinescopes and prints, 2" video reels, video cassettes, and objects associated with past award entrants. Many programs in the collection may be only surviving copies of a work, particularly if a radio or TV broadcast is locally produced.

“To be recognized alongside renowned storytelling icons is not only a tremendous honor but also a poignant reminder of the enduring relevance of public institutions in shaping our cultural narrative,” added Howard.

Winners of this year’s Peabody Awards will be announced on May 9, with a ceremony held June 9 at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Los Angeles.