Sustainable Libraries Initiative (SLI) x Virginia Library Association Partnership

A new partnership between the Sustainable Libraries Initiative (SLI) and the Virginia Library Association (VLA) aims to equip VLA members with tools and resources to address the challenges and mitigate the impact of climate change in their communities.

Through this partnership, VLA members will join a nationwide community of practice who are using tools created or compiled by the SLI and its members to uncover ways that their libraries and communities will understand, adapt to, and help lessen the effects of climate change. These tools include policy and programming examples; a vendor list to ease the search of finding environmentally friendly products and services; a webinar archive and the RoadMap to Sustainability to help with planning; and a custom CO2 calculator to help members estimate their current institutional greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and measure longitudinal progress in efforts to reduce their emissions.

“The Virginia Library Association is thrilled to partner with the Sustainable Libraries Initiative, emphasizing sustainability as a core value for our profession and ensuring accessibility to the program. Any library with a VLA Affiliate Membership is eligible; if your library is not an Affiliate but has Individuals with VLA memberships, those libraries can also participate. With more than 94 Affiliate Libraries and 5100+ members, we anticipate wide response and enthusiasm for this Member Benefit.” said Lisa R. Varga, Executive Director of the Virginia Library Association.

“We applaud the Virginia Library Association for seeking this partnership to enable all of their members to accelerate their adoption of sustainable thinking,” said Rebekkah Smith Aldrich, Board President of the Sustainable Libraries Initiative, “Positioning the Virginia library community as leaders in the conversation about climate change mitigation and adaptation is a strong move to ensure libraries contribute to their community’s resilience and remain relevant and responsive institutions.”

The Sustainable Libraries Initiative’s Sustainable Library Certification Program (SLCP) —available to public libraries, academic libraries, library systems, and school librarians — provides libraries with a reliable course of action to enhance library leadership and demonstrate commitment to environmental stewardship, economic feasibility, and social equity. The certification program guides participants to evaluate their decision-making philosophies, build stronger connections within their community, and consider the lasting impacts of their action for their service area.

Members of the Virginia Library Association who opt in via the SLI website will receive one free year of annual membership to the Sustainable Libraries Initiative and a 20% discount on the award-winning Sustainable Library Certification Program. Cohorts of five or more libraries will receive a 25% discount on certification, supporting the principle that there is power in collective action.

About the Sustainable Libraries Initiative
The Sustainable Libraries Initiative is a member-driven organization that empowers library professionals to be leaders using triple-bottom-line sustainability (environmental stewardship, social equity, and economic feasibility) throughout their organizations and in their communities. The Sustainable Library Certification Program is now enrolling public and academic libraries, library systems, and school librarians nationwide.

2024 Cardinal Cup Award Winner and Honors Announced

The Cardinal Cup Committee, previously the Jefferson Cup Committee, is pleased to announce their 2024 winner, honor titles, series of note, and overfloweth selections. The 8-person committee selected these books from 214 historical fiction, historical nonfiction, and biography titles that ranged from picture books to young adult titles. The complete book list can be downloaded below.

Winner

The 2024 Cardinal Cup winner is Light Comes to Shadow Mountain by Toni Buzzeo, published by Holiday House.

Honors

The 2024 Cardinal Cup Committee has selected two honor titles. The titles are A Flag for Juneteenth by Kim Taylor (Neal Porter Books) and For Lamb by Lesa Cline-Ransom (Holiday House).

Series of Note

The Cardinal Cup Committee recognizes a series of note. The Committee must read at least two titles from a book series for it to be eligible for this honor. The Series of Note is Penguin Random House's Race to the Truth. All titles in the series aim to tell the truth about traditionally one-sided discussions of complicated aspects of American history. The books include narrative non-fiction, photographs, maps, and questions to invite discussion and critical thinking, encourage deeper thinking about historical biases, and are just as engaging as they are important.

 About Cardinal Cup Award

Established in 1982 and presented since 1983, the Cardinal Cup Committee’s goal is to promote reading about America’s past; to encourage the quality writing of United States history, biography, and historical fiction for young people, and to recognize authors in these disciplines. From 2012-2021 two books were selected: one for geared toward young adult readers and one for young readers. Beginning in 2022, the Committee returned to the original model, honoring the most distinguished biography, historical fiction, or American history book for young people. In 2023, the Committee and award were renamed. The Cardinal Cup Committee’s mission remains the same, with a commitment to celebrating titles that honor the diverse history of the United States.

Virginia Library Association 2025 Election of Officers Results

Please join us in congratulating the newly elected members of the Virginia Library Association Executive Committee for 2025.

Vice-President/President-Elect - Nancy Falciani-White 

Nancy Falciani-White has been elected to a 3-year term as Vice-President/President-Elect.

Nancy Falciani-White (she/her) is the Library Director of the McGraw-Page Library at Randolph-Macon College (Ashland, VA). She has worked in academic libraries for over 20 years, beginning as an undergraduate interlibrary loan student employee at Wheaton College. She became the staff coordinator of the interlibrary loan office as her first “real job” and fell in love with the challenges of finding obscure materials for faculty and students and working small miracles to get them resources by their deadline. She eventually learned that a lack of planning on their part did not constitute an emergency on her part. She decided to pursue her MSLIS while working in ILL and then moved into reference and instruction, providing leadership for the first structured instruction program at the library, and she was then promoted to department head for reference, instruction, outreach, educational technology, and assessment before moving to Virginia to lead the McGraw-Page Library in 2016. 

Before all that time in academia, however, Nancy was a dedicated public library user. She grew up in New Jersey, homeschooled from second grade through high school, and the public library was central to her childhood. She grew up a voracious reader, and the magic of the public library for her was in the breadth of what was available to read, learn, and use, as well as in the welcoming staff who knew her by name.

Nancy has been a peer-reviewer for VLACRL presentations, a presenter and attendee at VLA, and a mentor in the Virginia Library Leadership Academy (VALLA), as well as involved with VIVA and VICULA.

Nancy earned a B.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies (English, Education, Music) from Wheaton College, an MSLIS from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and an EdD in Instructional Technology from Northern Illinois University.

 Secretary - Kendra Hawkins

Kendra Hawkins has been elected to a 2-year term as Secretary.

Kendra Hawkins has served as the Coordinator of Library Services at the Tidewater Community College Portsmouth Campus Library since May 2021. In addition to overseeing budgeting and acquisitions for the libraries and tutoring centers, she leads staff teams in student engagement activities, collection services and providing technology support. She also serves on several TCC and Virginia library consortium committees, including serving as recorder for the TCC Faculty Professional Development Committee and chairing the Virginia Tidewater Consortium (VTC) Collections Committee.

Growing up in a military family, Kendra moved around a lot before settling down in the Tidewater area of Southeastern Virginia while she was in elementary school. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Interdisciplinary Studies from Norfolk State University in Norfolk, VA and a Master of Library Science from Clarion University in Clarion, PA.  Since receiving her MLS, she has worked as an Acquisitions and Electronic Resources librarian for the Department of the Army, Manager of the Indian River Library in Chesapeake, VA and Technology and Content Strategy Manager at the Suffolk Public Library in Suffolk VA.

Kendra has been an active member of VLA for several years, most recently serving on the task force for the 2024 Virginia Library Leadership Academy (VALLA) Cohort. She also co-presented at the 2023 VLA Conference. She wholeheartedly believes in the purpose of the VLA “to develop, promote, and improve library and information services, library staff, and the profession of librarianship in order to advance literacy and learning and to ensure access to information in the Commonwealth of Virginia.” Kendra also believes the mission of libraries is rooted in the principles of access, education, community, and intellectual freedom, with the overarching goal of enriching lives and strengthening communities.

An avid reader and science fiction fan, Kendra finds solace in exploring new galaxies and going on interstellar adventures through her frequent Amazon book purchases and favorite TV series.

Nancy and Kendra will begin their terms at the conclusion of the Virginia Library Association's business meeting, held immediately before the closing session of the Annual Conference on Friday, October 18, 2024.

Virginia Library Association's Library of the Year Winner is Samuels Public Library

The Virginia Library Association congratulates the 2024 Virginia Library of the Year, Samuels Public Library.

Samuels Public Library has been providing public access to literature and learning in Warren County in the Town of Front Royal for more than two centuries. The Front Royal Librarian Society was the second subscription library in the Commonwealth, receiving its charter in 1799. In 1836 the Society was incorporated by the General Assembly and throughout the next century, the Library persevered through war and the Depression. The community has always supported the Library. The ladies of Warren County even held a “Silver Tea” with participants donating a book to grow the collection. Then in 1952 local resident Dr. Bernard Samuels donated a building to house the Library. This generosity was acknowledged through a renaming, and Samuels Public Library was born. With bequests and patron commitments, the Library was about to build a new modern facility which opened to the public in 1980 and with continued community growth and the cooperation of Warren County the doors opened anew in 2009 to a warm, friendly and beautiful location that is now home to Samuels Public Library and the many patrons we call friends.

Today, Samuels Public Library serves more than 41,000 people in the County of Warren and strives to bring people, information, and ideas together to enrich lives and build community. In the last fiscal year the Library had more than 127,000 visitors, over 400,000 checkouts, and hosted 542 programs that saw 19,194 attendees. With growth and commitment to state-of-the-art services, the library was recently honored to receive a grant from the Mellon Foundation to improve and establish a combination Memory Lab and Makerspace enhancing free services for all.

Samuels continues its mission to improve and grow, to provide our community with excellent resources and services, special programs and events, updated technology and will remain one of the best community resources in Front Royal and Warren County.

"One of the most significant accomplishments of Samuels Library is its continuous dedication throughout a 9-month challenge the Library faced against a small group in the community with the intent to censor books in early 2023. In the midst of the challenge, the Warren County Board of Supervisors decided to withhold 75% of the Library’s annual budget until a compromise was made. Samuels Library made changes to address the issues the group had with some of the books on our shelves, including creating a new collection called New Adult, reviewing all Young Adult (YA) books, moving a selection of YA books to New Adult, and creating two new youth library cards with checkout restrictions."

"Nonetheless, Samuels Library is ready to fight for the First Amendment rights of all by strictly adhering to our Collection Development Policy and ensuring our collection reflects a multitude of ideas."

"In 2023, Samuels Public Library experienced more than 300 book challenges by a very small (53 individuals out of 20,549 patrons) but vocal minority in the community who demanded that books be removed from the collection based solely on LBGTQ content and that the library change its non-profit structure. The library’s leadership stood firm and defended its collection policies and structure. The library’s staff, Board of Trustees, the Friends of the Samuels Public Library, and hundreds of community members jumped in to defend the library and ensure its safe, welcoming, and inclusive environment for all patrons. The library not only survived this contentious challenge, but it has also thrived in its wake."

In order to celebrate the accomplishments of those who support and transform libraries throughout the Commonwealth, the Virginia Library Association, through the hard work of the Awards and Recognition Committee, offers a number of awards. Visit our VLA Awards page for more information about all of our awards. The 2024 winners are:

• Academic Innovator Award: Craig Arthur, Virginia Tech

• Advocacy Award: Fran Milhouser and Suzanne Levy, Fairfax County Public Library

• Donna G. Cote Librarian of the Year: Michelle Paxton, York County Public Library

• Friends of the Library Award: Friends of Samuels Library, Samuels Public Library
• 
Librarian of Color Forum Award: Eletha Davis, Williamsburg Regional Library

• Outstanding Professional Associates Award: Shannon Hendrix, Virginia Beach Public Library
• 
Professional Associates Forum Award: Darla Boardwine, Tazewell County Public Library

• Public Library Innovator Award: Community Learning Department - Minerva Hernandez Garcia, Suffolk Public Library
• 
Trustee Library Award: Melody Hotek, Samuels Public Library

• Up and Comer Award: Amanda Henderson, Suffolk Public Library

• Virginia Library of the Year: Samuels Public Library

• VLAPAF Supporters of Professional Associates Award: Clenise Platt, Virginia Beach Public Library
• Honorary Life Membership: Betsy Fowler 

All Virginia Library Association award winners will be honored at the Opening Session of the VLA Annual Conference, at 10AM on October 17, 2024 at the Norfolk Marriott Waterside, VA in conjunction with the VLA Annual Conference. For details about all of the winners and their accomplishments, click here.