91´«Ã½

CHICAGO — The 91´«Ã½ has awarded the 2018 Loleta D. Fyan Award to Sarah Strahl for her proposal for a Food Literacy – A Critical Need at Hillsboro Public Library.

Loleta Fyan, 1951-52 91´«Ã½ President, bequeathed funds to 91´«Ã½ with the intent that "these funds be used for the development and improvement of public libraries and the services they provide." Fyan, who was the State Librarian of Michigan for 20 years, believed that every individual, regardless of residence, is equally entitled to high quality library service and that librarians must be adept in using the political process to acquire this "right of citizenship". A pioneer in extending library service to rural areas and small communities and a proponent of library cooperation, Fyan was a driving force behind Library Services and Construction Act (LSCA) funding.

The Loleta D. Fyan Award Jury noted that Strahl’s proposal will benefit many community members with advice about healthy eating on a limited budget. By developing classes on basic cooking skills and how to eat well on a small budget and then archiving on the web videos of these classes, Hillsboro (Oregon) Public Library will provide a very valuable resource for their community. Once archived, these classes will also be available to anyone who connects to the web, and they will provide a model for other libraries that want to create similar content.