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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of
3Representatives wish to congratulate Roberta Koscielski,
4Deputy Director of the Peoria Public Library, for being named
5the 2020 Librarian of the Year by the Illinois Library
6Association; and
 
7    WHEREAS, Roberta Koscielski earned her Associate of
8Science in LAS (Mathematics) from Illinois Valley Community
9College in May 1979; she obtained her Bachelor of Arts in
10Linguistics from the University of Illinois at
11Urbana-Champaign in May 1981; she earned her Master of Science
12in Library and Information Science from the University of
13Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in August 1982; and
 
14    WHEREAS, Roberta Koscielski has worked for the Peoria
15Public Library for over 35 years; prior to her current role as
16deputy director, she held positions as the Lakeview branch
17manager and as grant coordinator; and
 
18    WHEREAS, Roberta Koscielski has been an active attendee and
19presenter at Illinois Library Association (ILA) conferences;
20she presented a session titled Building Community Awareness of
21the Heroin/Opiates Epidemic in 2017; she was one of four
22presenters at the session Addressing the Opioid Epidemic: What

 

 

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1Libraries Need to Know during the 2018 conference; and
 
2    WHEREAS, Roberta Koscielski spearheaded a committee to
3create Peoria Reads!, a successful one city, one book program;
4she partnered with Common Place, an organization in which she
5volunteered as an adult literacy tutor and was a board member,
6to form Peoria Reads!; she joined the board of Neighborhood
7House, another local organization, after it partnered with
8Common Place; she also volunteers and serves as a board member
9of the Peoria Area Literacy Coalition; and
 
10    WHEREAS, Roberta Koscielski was nominated by Common Place
11and was selected to receive a Volunteer Service Award from
12President George W. Bush in January 2007, which President Bush
13presented to her while she stood at the foot of Air Force One;
14she received a Prescott E. Bloom Memorial Distinguished Service
15Award for volunteering in January 1993; and
 
16    WHEREAS, In 2012, Roberta Koscielski was asked by the mayor
17of Peoria and the state's attorney to support the city's new
18initiative to decrease gang violence by promoting the book
19Don't Shoot: One Man, a Street Fellowship, and the End of
20Violence in Inner-City America by David M. Kennedy; her
21assistance led the Peoria Public Library to become a larger
22part of this initiative by hosting city meetings and "call-ins"
23with offenders; and
 

 

 

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1    WHEREAS, In 2016, Roberta Koscielski was asked again by the
2city to promote the book Dreamland: The True Tale of America's
3Opiate Epidemic by Sam Quinones; she saw the importance in
4public awareness of the opioid epidemic, especially after three
5patrons overdosed at the Peoria Main Library; she trained
6library staff administration on the use of naloxone or Narcan
7to reverse the effects of an overdose and trained her staff to
8recognize the signs of an overdose and respond; and
 
9    WHEREAS, Roberta Koscielski's work on promoting awareness
10of the opioid epidemic and training staff earned her a place as
11one of Library Journal's Movers and Shakers in 2018; she was
12also recognized in U.S. News & World Report as one of the "new
13first responders" in the opioid epidemic in January 2019;
14therefore, be it
 
15    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE
16HUNDRED FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
17we congratulate Roberta Koscielski on being named the 2020
18Librarian of the Year, and we commend her for her dedication to
19the Peoria Public Library and her volunteerism for various
20community service initiatives; and be it further
 
21    RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be
22presented to Roberta Koscielski as an expression of our esteem

 

 

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1and respect.