HR0933 101ST GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR0933 LRB101 22942 LAW 74041 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of Representatives wish to congratulate Roberta Koscielski, Deputy Director of the Peoria Public Library, for being named the 2020 Librarian of the Year by the Illinois Library Association; and

WHEREAS, Roberta Koscielski earned her Associate of Science in LAS (Mathematics) from Illinois Valley Community College in May 1979; she obtained her Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in May 1981; she earned her Master of Science in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in August 1982; and

WHEREAS, Roberta Koscielski has worked for the Peoria Public Library for over 35 years; prior to her current role as deputy director, she held positions as the Lakeview branch manager and as grant coordinator; and

WHEREAS, Roberta Koscielski has been an active attendee and presenter at Illinois Library Association (ILA) conferences; she presented a session titled Building Community Awareness of the Heroin/Opiates Epidemic in 2017; she was one of four presenters at the session Addressing the Opioid Epidemic: What Libraries Need to Know during the 2018 conference; and

WHEREAS, Roberta Koscielski spearheaded a committee to create Peoria Reads!, a successful one city, one book program; she partnered with Common Place, an organization in which she volunteered as an adult literacy tutor and was a board member, to form Peoria Reads!; she joined the board of Neighborhood House, another local organization, after it partnered with Common Place; she also volunteers and serves as a board member of the Peoria Area Literacy Coalition; and

WHEREAS, Roberta Koscielski was nominated by Common Place and was selected to receive a Volunteer Service Award from President George W. Bush in January 2007, which President Bush presented to her while she stood at the foot of Air Force One; she received a Prescott E. Bloom Memorial Distinguished Service Award for volunteering in January 1993; and

WHEREAS, In 2012, Roberta Koscielski was asked by the mayor of Peoria and the state's attorney to support the city's new initiative to decrease gang violence by promoting the book Don't Shoot: One Man, a Street Fellowship, and the End of Violence in Inner-City America by David M. Kennedy; her assistance led the Peoria Public Library to become a larger part of this initiative by hosting city meetings and "call-ins" with offenders; and

WHEREAS, In 2016, Roberta Koscielski was asked again by the city to promote the book Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic by Sam Quinones; she saw the importance in public awareness of the opioid epidemic, especially after three patrons overdosed at the Peoria Main Library; she trained library staff administration on the use of naloxone or Narcan to reverse the effects of an overdose and trained her staff to recognize the signs of an overdose and respond; and

WHEREAS, Roberta Koscielski's work on promoting awareness of the opioid epidemic and training staff earned her a place as one of Library Journal's Movers and Shakers in 2018; she was also recognized in U.S. News & World Report as one of the "new first responders" in the opioid epidemic in January 2019; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE HUNDRED FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we congratulate Roberta Koscielski on being named the 2020 Librarian of the Year, and we commend her for her dedication to the Peoria Public Library and her volunteerism for various community service initiatives; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to Roberta Koscielski as an expression of our esteem and respect.