West Ashley anniversary cake

West Ashley anniversary cake
Originally uploaded by staff_lines

West Ashley branch celebrated its 45th anniversary today. Congratulations!

LJ star rating news coverage

CCPL's been in the news often this week. It's so nice to have this to celebrate honor to celebrate during National Library Week and also nice to share the news with the community. If it weren't for our patrons, where would we be?
I don't know that you've been tracking this as closely as I have, but we've been in the email that goes to all County employees, the Charleston Regional Business Journal, on Channel 4, in the SC Biz daily email, the Charleston City Paper, in today's Charleston Currents, and today's The Post and Courier.

To read the Charleston Currents article, Library deserves praise for earning national honor

And the Letter to the Editor Busy library wins an accolade

National Library Week

FINAL-NLW-jlc-ad
Originally uploaded by sgzalusky@yahoo.com

Great National Library Week Poster!

We're stars!

Thanks to you and our community support

“Charleston County Public Library is one of the best library systems in the nation, according to a new rating system measuring library services of 7,115 systems across the country.

The Library Journal index designates CCPL as a “star” library, putting it in the top 3 percent of libraries nationwide. Only 11 Library Systems in the 11 Southeastern states received star ratings, and only two in South Carolina.

This first-ever service comparison clusters libraries with similar operating budgets then rates the libraries in four main categories: number of visitors, circulation, program attendance and public Internet computer use.”

Next week is National Library Week and in celebration I wanted share the news with you! We have sent a press release with this information, and more, to the media outlets. The complete text of this release has been added to our web page, and to the Staff Intranet, under News.

“Library Journal’s accolade comes at a time when CCPL is busier than ever, reflecting a national trend of increased Library use from residents suffering in this economic downturn, searching for ways to save money or needing help finding a job. This higher demand resulted in a 22 percent jump in new Library card registrations when compared to last year.

Residents in Charleston County can go visit our web page and click on the “Why I Love my Library” logo or stop by a local branch to share their stories.”

Want to see what people have said about us? Take a look at See what some of your neighbors are saying about CCPL in the Why I Love My Library section of our web site. They are saying wonderful things about you.

Paper copies of the “Why I Love My Library” forms and boxes where patrons may place their forms are on their way to each branch. Please display these prominently.

I am proud of you and of our services—this award reflects the hard work of all you . Thanks for making this a great library.

Reminder--send your pictures!

Next week during National Library Week, the State Library is sponsoring the Third Annual South Carolina National Library Week Photo contest. We've gotten honorable mention before, but let's aim for a winning entry this year!

If you do not have a Flickr account, feel free to send your photos to me.

If you do have a Flickr account, take a look at the contest rules and entry guidelines. NLW Day in the Life of SC Libraries Photo Contest 2009 Don't forget to tag them with CCPL, in addition to NLWdayinSC2009.

Can't wait to see your entries!