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Catharine Richert
Rochester, Minn.

LGBTQ outreach helps Rochester library win national award

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A child and adult literacy program and support for LGBTQ youth helped the Rochester Public Library win a National Medal of Museum and Library Service, the highest honor a library can earn.

The library is one of 10 in the country to get the 2018 award from the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services.

"It's really about being a safe, welcoming space and really living our core value, which is that we care. And we really do care about our community," Rochester Library spokesperson Karen Lemke said Tuesday.

The library noted that community member James Arnold will travel to Washington, D.C., with library director Audrey Betcher to accept the award.

Arnold, 17, "has used the library as a safe space to develop his passion for writing and has helped plan programs for teens and younger children, "and when Arnold first identified as transgender, the library provided him a safe space to explore his identity," the library said in a statement.

"The best thing about the library is its commitment to serving the entire community even if it's part of the community that typically doesn't have a voice. And I think that is a very beautiful thing," Arnold said in the statement.

"The Rochester Public Library has a range of programming that's really impressive from our standpoint," said Teri DeVoe, associate deputy director for the Office of Library Services for the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

She pointed to a long-term reading program for kids and adults as an example. "Many libraries do reading programs, but this is really an example of an intervention that can have an impact on the community at large."

The Rochester library is one of four Minnesota libraries recognized over the award's 24-year history. The others are the University of Minnesota Libraries, Hill Museum & Manuscript Library and St. Paul Public Library.