Children’s Librarian Wins County Award

In an era of meager book budgets and dwindling collections, La Canada Flintridge children’s librarian Evelyn Taylor struck a deal with local bookstores to stock her children’s section with the latest bestsellers.

Taylor, 58, displays recent fiction and nonfiction releases from city bookstores--targeted at the toddler to eighth-grade reading level--on tables set up at the library’s entrance.

Patrons interested in certain children’s literature can buy books from the display and donate them to the library, said Barry Shemaria, La Canada Flintridge community library manager.

Devising creative ways to finance more than one-third of the library’s collection is one of many projects that helped Taylor garner the “Charlotte Award” during National Library Week last week.

The award, named after the classic children’s tale “Charlotte’s Web,” is given to a Los Angeles County children’s librarian at an annual awards ceremony.

Taylor, who said she was surprised to receive the honor, was chosen from among four finalists who work as librarians in 84 Los Angeles County branch libraries.

“From the second or third sentence read by the presenter I knew it was me, and from then on I don’t know what they said,” Taylor said.

The county award recognizes outstanding performance as a children’s librarian who promotes community awareness, works well with colleagues and is recognized for work in the community, Shemaria said.

Shemaria described another of Taylor’s fortes--games--saying the children’s librarian hid the cartoon character “Waldo” throughout the library and asked kids to find him--helping them learn their way around the facility in the process.

Taylor said she has read voraciously since she was a child and continues to read all the fiction and nonfiction she can get her hands on--devouring an English mystery or two in her spare time.

She said she tries to show library patrons that books can not only provide an escape for children but can open up new worlds and give kids “something to hold onto.”

Although it’s easy to get children to take books home with them because La Canada Flintridge is a “reading community,” Taylor said she’s concerned that many families do not sit down with their kids and read to them.

“I don’t think there are enough families reading together,” she said. “If a family listens to a story together there’s a lot of absorption going on with the kids.”