[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 12]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 17558]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    TRIBUTE TO WORTHINGTON LIBRARIES

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. DEBORAH PRYCE

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 26, 2007

  Ms. PRYCE of Ohio. Madam Speaker, it is a distinct honor to rise and 
recognize Worthington Libraries, recently named the 2007 Library of the 
Year by Library Journal and Gale.
  The roots of Worthington Libraries can be traced to 1803 and the 
small town of Granby, CT, where a group of 100 men, women and children 
set out to begin a new life in Worthington, OH, bringing their 
collections of books with them. The library which was formed to manage 
those books was the first in Franklin County and only the third in 
Ohio.
  The first building to actually house the collection came in 1927 when 
Elizabeth Jones Deshler donated money for a library building on the 
northeast comer of the Village Green, the area set aside by 
Worthington's founders for the public pursuit of learning and 
education. Mrs. Deshler dedicated the building to the memory of her 
grandfather, Worthington founder James Kilbourne. In 1931, Mrs. Deshler 
funded the addition of north and south wings on the James Kilbourne 
Memorial Library Building.
  With a new location and an additional building, the current Library 
offers the world-class service and learning environment to match its 
storied past. The library is still the focal point of the community, 
emphasizing accountability to its patrons through rigorous, forward-
looking planning and quality service that embraces not just adults but 
also children and teens. The community returns the compliment with 
strong financial support, giving the library 65.5 percent of its 
funding, even though three-quarters of Ohio's public libraries get most 
or all of their funding from the State.
  Innovations which contributed to Worthington Libraries' selection for 
Library of the Year included a roving reference librarian, new ways to 
promote high-traffic items like popular fiction, a teen blog and 
``MySpace'' page, adult programming that extend to forums sponsored 
with the town's Council for Public Deliberation, and strong e-assets 
that include not only 164 top-notch electronic resources and more than 
8,000 full-text periodicals but also TumbleBooks, which provides 
animated stories for children.
  It is an honor to represent a community which prides itself upon the 
pursuit of knowledge, and the Worthington Libraries nobly provides that 
endeavor for its residents. Congratulations to all the staff of 
Worthington Libraries for continuing to find new ways to promote 
reading and learning.

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