Dover Library employee receives outreach award

Dover Library employee receives outreach award
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Linda Toohey, outreach librarian with the Dover Public Library, has won the 2018 John Philip Outreach Award.

                        

Linda Toohey, outreach librarian with the Dover Public Library, has won the 2018 John Philip Outreach Award, which honors individuals or groups who demonstrate dedication to bringing library programs and services to under-served members of the community.

Toohey gave up a career as a cosmetologist to jumpstart a stagnant outreach program at the Dover Public Library. She used her personal vehicle for the first two years, then applied for and received a grant from the Reeves Foundation to fund a library vehicle.

Realizing early on that she could not manage a strong program alone, she “hired” and trained a volunteer team. Now known as the Book Buddies, they assist with delivering books and movies to home-bound patrons.

New to technology, Toohey taught herself how to use an iPad to track deliveries and learned PowerPoint so she could create her own programs. She took this knowledge and shared it with her patrons, teaching them how to use digital resources.

In five short years, Toohey, now known around town as “Library Linda,” has grown a small program with only 20 deliveries a week into a full-fledged outreach services department that includes more than 200 deliveries a month and provides technology assistance and programming through a team of volunteers.


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