On the evening of July 31, the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) celebrated its 2024 National Medal for Museum and Library Service at the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC. IMLS Acting Director Cyndee Landrum presented the National Medals to the award recipients, which included a range of libraries from across the country.

The Smithsonian setting was a departure from the traditional National Medal award ceremony in the White House. “It was a very accessible event.” Landrum told LJ. “It’s always awesome to be at the White House, but the White House is a little confined. The good thing about being at the Renwick this year is that we were able to have many more people, particularly community members from some of the institutions.” A number of local federal agency employees were guests as well—for some, their first time at the IMLS event, she added.

The annual award celebrated 10 institutions—five libraries and five museums—that have demonstrated excellence in service to their communities. Each was represented at the event by its director or other leader, plus one community member who helped tell the story about their institution’s work along with a short video. “It really shines a light on the museum and library professions as community driven, community focused,” said Landrum, “which is what the medals are really all about—the institutions in service to their community.”

Aside from the well-deserved national recognition that comes with the award, noted Landrum, “many libraries have leveraged their receipt of the medal as a tool for fundraising, to make the case in their communities and their states for funding, and then as a tool to talk about the value that the library brings to its communities, and its essentialness to improving and transforming the communities it serves.”

Selected from 30 finalists across the country, this year’s National Medal winners included large and small organizations, from rural, suburban, and urban areas. The 2024 library honorees are:

• Copper Queen Library, Bisbee, AZ (LJ’s 2019 Best Small Library in America), a decommissioned middle school transformed in 2018 into a vibrant community hub in collaboration with the local Unified School District. Originally a single-classroom library for early literacy outreach in an underserved neighborhood, it has since grown into a fully-fledged library with expanded adult literacy programming.
• DC Public Library, Washington, DC, a 27-branch urban system in a city that is home to many diverse communities, including Spanish, French, Amharic, and Chinese speakers. Since 2017, the library’s Outreach and Inclusion Team has worked to connect with individuals who may encounter a range of barriers to accessing library facilities, from language differences to issues of physical accessibility.
• Griswold Memorial Library, Colrain, MA, a community-driven, grassroots library working on collaboration with the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office and the Belding Memorial Library in Ashfield to provide resources to incarcerated individuals and those at the local re-entry center. Program highlights include called “Read to the Children,” which lets caregivers who are incarcerated record themselves reading a book for their child, who then receives both the book and the recording.
• Harris County Public Library, Houston, TX, located in one of the largest counties in the country, launched its Emergency Connectivity Fund in 2022. The collaboration with more than 20 community partners focuses on bridging the digital divide and enhancing access to essential resources; it ultimately distributed more than 7,000 devices, as well as providing access to workforce development opportunities, literary services, and digital resources.
• Kent District Library, Comstock Park, MI (winner of the 2023 Jerry Kline Community Impact Prize), began addressing connectivity issues during the height of the pandemic by providing Wi-Fi hotspots throughout the rural northern region of its county service area, ensuring that students could attend class remotely. Other community-forward services include local concerts, summer learning, and eSports resources.

Museum awards went to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, Tucson, AZ; Children’s Museum Houston; Discovery Museum, Acton, MA; the Louis Armstrong House Museum, Queens, NY; and the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, Pittsburgh, PA.

Since 1994, the award has honored more than 200 institutions for their exemplary and innovative approaches to public service. This year, “the field was very diverse in terms of the size of the library and the types of communities—everything from small towns to gigantic counties with urban centers and sprawling suburbs, and all addressing a variety of types of issues, concerns, and unique ways to speak to who they are serving,” said Landrum.

Nominations are open for the 2025 National Medals until September 6. Anyone, including the organization’s employees, board members, community members, or elected officials, can nominate a museum or library. Landrum hopes to see more entries for academic libraries in this year’s nomination pool, she told LJ. “They may see themselves as serving a particular community, but they do serve a community, whether that’s on or off campus.”