Wisconsin Library Association Announces Library of the Year, Librarian of the Year and Other Award Winners

The Wisconsin Library Association’s Awards and Honors Committee is pleased to announce the following award recipients for 2004: DEMCO/Librarian of the Year, both Rob Reid, Indianhead Library System, Eau Claire, and Peter G. Hamon, director of the South Central Library System, Madison; Library of the Year, Hedberg Library, Carthage College, Kenosha; Trustee of the Year, Sandralee Thiele, president, Darien Public Library Board of Trustees; Special Service Award, Donald Bulley, Trustee, South Milwaukee Public Library; WLA/Highsmith Award, Marathon County Public Library, Wausau; and Muriel Fuller Award, Laura Moss Gottlieb, Reference Librarian, Hedberg Public Library, Janesville. Congratulations to all! More information is available on the WLA website.


2004 Banta Award, Notable Authors, and Outstanding Books Selected

Larry Watson’s book Orchard, a beautifully crafted novel set in 1950s Door County, has been selected as the winner of the 2004 Banta Award by the WLA's Literary Awards Committee. WLA will formally present the award, which includes a $1,000 honorarium, to Mr. Watson at the WLA annual conference in November. Mr. Watson will also do a book signing and speak at the conference, which attracts approximately 1,100 librarians, staff, and trustees from throughout the state.

According to Sandra Sechrest, chair of the WLA’s Literary Committee that selects the Banta winners, Orchard is a beautifully crafted novel set in 1950s Door County. It deals with the tragic relationships between a gifted but self-obsessed artist, his patient wife, his model/muse and her jealous husband.

Notable authors selected this year are Charles D. Stewart, an essayist and novelist, Jack Ritchie, a short story writer, and well- known novelist Peter Straub. The following were selected as 2004 Outstanding Books:
Bradley, James. Flyboys: A True Story of Courage
Fromm, Pete. As Cool As I Am
Ligon, Samuel. Safe in Heaven Dead
McGilligan, Patrick. Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light
McLain, Paula. Like Family: Growing Up in Other People’s Houses
Maraniss, David. They Marched into Sunlight: War and Peace, Vietnam and America, October 1967
Peters, Margot. Design for Living: Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne: A Biography
Salter, Anna. Predators: Pedophiles, Rapists and Other Sex Offenders: Who They Are, How They Operate, and How We Can Protect Ourselves and Our Children
Sidran, Ben. Ben Sidran: A Life in the Music
Townsend, Alison. The Blue Dress: Poems & Prose Poems