Darien Library has won two honors in the Connecticut Library Association’s 2021 Publicity Awards. Here’s a look at each of the winning programs.

— an announcement from Darien Library (with Darienite.com’s additions)

Krishna Grady, head of Youth Services, and Amanda L. Goodman, head of user experience, won in the Connected Community videos Electronic category. Goodman also won in the Designer’s Award category for the library’s Women’s History Month/Women’s Suffrage display.

The library previously won other publicity awards at the state-level publicity contest and at the national level.

These are the two winning Darien publicity efforts:

Connected Community

“To help us stay connected during these times, Darien Library presents ‘Connected Community’ — fun videos made by you and your neighbors.”

When Darien Library’s building closed in March 2020, library staff wanted to find a way to help people still feel like they were part of a community while sheltering in their homes. The tutorial videos allowed people to share their best do-it-yourself skills in a way that was fun and accessible.

The videos covered topics from how to cook, play a card game, sew a mask, and make children’s toys. Among the contributors was caterer Carolyn Eddie of Carolyn’s Absolutely Fabulous Events.

Here’s one of the shorter videos:

One Pot Italian Pasta — Reed shares how to make pasta in just one pot. View the recipe

Connected Community: One Pot Italian Pasta from Darien Library on Vimeo.

Women’s History Month/Women’s Suffrage Display

The year 2020 marked the 100th anniversary of women gaining suffrage in the United States. To celebrate this momentous occasion, Darien Library created a display that chronicled the history of American women’s suffrage from 1776 to 1965.

The display functioned as a snapshot education of challenges women faced on the way to obtaining suffrage. While including well-known historical figures and events, the work of other pivotal people were highlighted including Mary Ann Shadd Cary, Dr. Anna Julia Cooper, Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, and Amelia Boynton who organized for African American suffrage.

In the early 20th century, Dr. Mabel Ping-Hua Lee worked for Chinese American suffrage, Jovita Idár for Mexican American suffrage, and Zitkála-Šá for Native American suffrage.

(See images of the poster below.)

About Darien Library

Darien Library is a Library Journal five-star Library. It is among the busiest in the state with over 1,300 people visiting on an average day and has the highest per capita circulation of items in Connecticut. The Library collection includes 125,000 books and 300 newspaper and magazine subscriptions. In addition, the Library presents over 1,500 public events annually, hosting a lineup of bestselling authors, technology classes, early literacy programs, and workshops for small business owners and entrepreneurs.

The Poster

The poster is horizontal, but if we presented it that way, you couldn’t read it, so Darienite.com has taken it apart to present it vertically. Here it is: