Illinois State University’s Milner Library is one of only seven
libraries nationwide to be awarded the 2007 John Cotton Dana Library Public
Relations Award. The award recognizes Milner Library’s work in raising
campus and community awareness about the life and professional contributions
of Angeline “Ange” Milner, the University’s first librarian.
The prestigious John Cotton Dana Library Public Relations Award been given annually since 1946 to recognize and honor outstanding achievement in library public relations. Through the years, the majority of the awards have been given to public libraries for their outreach efforts. Milner Library was the only academic library to receive the honor in 2007.
The John Cotton Dana Award is jointly sponsored by the H.W. Wilson Company and the H.W. Wilson Foundation, Bronx, N.Y., with the Library Administration and Management Association (LAMA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA). The award will be officially presented at the ALA Annual Conference in Washington, D.C. this coming June. Included in the award is a $3,000 development grant from the H.W. Wilson Foundation, to support further public relations initiatives at Milner Library.
Milner Library was recognized for its public relations campaign, “Honoring Illinois State University’s First Librarian Angeline “Ange” Vernon Milner.” The extensive public awareness effort was aimed at highlighting the scholarly and professional contributions that Angeline Milner made to the University. The campaign helped to refocus the local (and trivialized) perception of Milner from that of a ghost who – according to one campus legend – still haunts the old library stacks, to that of a key leader in the early history of the University.
The campaign, which coincided with the 150th anniversary of Milner’s birth, featured a public presentation about Milner’s life and career as well as a birthday ceremony for Illinois State’s first librarian, complete with cake. The highlight of the campaign was the April 2006 dedication of a headstone on Milner’s previously unmarked grave in Bloomington’s Evergreen Cemetery.
The public relations campaign about Milner’s life and career and the birthday celebration for the University’s first librarian were organized by Toni Tucker, assistant to the dean; Beth Schobernd, associate dean; JoAnn Rayfield, university archivist; and Angela Bonnell, an associate professor at Milner.
“Not only is winning the John Cotton Dana Award a huge honor for Milner
Library and Illinois State University, but it is also doubly meaningful
because the winning public relations campaign focus was on our first
librarian, Angeline Milner,” said Cheryl Elzy, dean of Milner Library. “Our
mission, as the University approached its 150th anniversary, was to move
Ange Milner from being “the campus ghost” to being a campus dignitary who
contributed so much to Illinois State’s success, a real person with a rich
legacy.”
