The Central Arkansas Library System on Wednesday was awarded the 2021 Jerry Kline Community Impact Prize together with a $250,000 grant from the Gerald M. Kline Family Foundation as well as a feature story chronicling the system's efforts on outreach and local collaboration in the publication Library Journal.
All public libraries nationwide are eligible to apply for the prize.
Last year, the library system received an honorable mention in the contest, which began in 2019 as a partnership between the California-based Kline Family Foundation and Library Journal.
At the time of its honorable-mention nod in 2020, the Central Arkansas Library System was working to meet its strategic plan with outreach and projects that saw success this year, Library Journal wrote in the story published Wednesday.
"From providing all Little Rock students with electronic resources and free meals -- and the bus passes necessary to access them -- to launching the Rock It! Lab for under-resourced entrepreneurs, helping ensure safe pedestrian routes to city parks, and establishing a virtual math tutoring program, the library has worked closely with a wide range of partners to make life better for everyone it serves," the publication wrote.
Additionally, the story acknowledged the library system's success at the polls last month with its Little Rock millage-increase referendum. The measure -- designed to provide the library system with up to $2.4 million in new annual revenue from property taxes -- passed with approximately 71% of the vote Nov. 9.
Library Journal credited Executive Director Nate Coulter, who took over the library system's top job in 2016, with helping to drive "a major shift in the library's institutional culture."
A 2019 strategic plan emphasized increasing the library system's outreach to underserved communities. Coulter told the publication that although the library by itself cannot address a lot of the challenges facing the community, "[W]e stand at an intersection with other folks who can do some of that work and have deeper resources and perhaps broader reach than we do. The library can be a catalyst for getting those groups together."
In a news release Wednesday, Coulter called the prize "a wonderful achievement for Central Arkansas and our library staff."
"We are enormously grateful to the Kline Foundation," he added. "The Kline Prize emphatically highlights the trust our community has placed in CALS, the dedication of our staff that honors that trust, and the effectiveness of our many partners who help us serve our patrons."
Honorable mentions in the 2021 contest went to the Sharpsburg Community Library in Pittsburgh and the Gail Borden Public Library District in Elgin, Ill.