The Pueblo City-County Library District needs your help! In the Sweet 16 bracket for the Leslie Barbara Knope Award for Best Public Library, Pueblo faces Township Library in Upper St. Clair, Pennsylvania.
The contest began in mid-January with an original pool of 116 nominated libraries from around the country. Each week, voters have weighed in, cutting the list in half until now only 16 remain. Pueblo has outperformed the other three Colorado nominees, managing to stay alive despite Aurora Public Library, Boulder Public Library, and Pikes Peak Library District in Colorado Springs all losing in various rounds of the competition. [caption id="attachment_33112" align="aligncenter" width="800"]
Courtesy of predock.com[/caption]
Named after the lovable Leslie Knope character in the hit NBC sit-com "Parks and Rec," the Leslie Barbara Knope Award is presented by the Engaging Local Government Leaders (ELGL) organization. Last year, the award honored the best city hall, but this year they've turned their attention to best public libraries.
The title of the award is ironic because while the "Parks and Rec" character was extremely enthusiastic about city government, she was not particularly fond of libraries. In fact, she despised them.
"From the historic to modern, functional to quaint, and urban to rural – we want to see them all! How will we know which library building is number one? We don’t, that’s why we’re asking you," ELGL says on their website.
To reach the top 16, Pueblo beat out a library in Bourne, MA, with a margin of 99 percent (clearly the good people of Bourne don't care much about their library!).
Voting for this round will last through Friday, Feb. 9. The Elite Eight will be revealed over the weekend, with voting on those picks occurring Feb. 12–16. Final Four voting will take place Feb. 19–23, and National Championship voting, Feb. 26–Mar. 2.
Click here to vote for Pueblo against Township Library in Upper St. Clair, PA!
