Press Release: Thomasville Public Library wins state programming award
Two finished portraits from the “Family Portraits at the Library” program.
{Photo credits: Thomasville Public Library}
Thomasville, NC – The North Carolina Public Library Directors Association has awarded the Thomasville Public Library its top programming award for “Family Portraits at the Library.” Thomasville competed with large-system libraries all across the state for the honor.
The NCPLDA will present the award at their annual banquet on Wednesday, November 30th in Winston-Salem. Davidson County Public Library Director Sheila Killebrew, as well as Thomasville Public Library’s Branch Manager Keaton Toney and Library
Services Support Technician Cody Beck will attend to accept the award on behalf of the Library.
One of the original branches comprising North Carolina’s first County library system in 1928, the Thomasville Public Library has hosted its festive Family Portrait service for the past three years. In that time, over 100 families from the Chair City and beyond have visited the Library’s conference room, where instead of a standard meeting space, they’ve found a festive makeshift photography studio, complete with lighting rigs, multiple backdrops, and seasonal props. A Library staff member stages the family members into various poses and shoots, edits, and delivers digital “card-ready” photos—all for free.
Branch Manager Keaton Toney spearheaded the program by recognizing a local need and taking steps to fill it between the shelves. “For many in our community,” Toney says, “too many obstacles prevent folks from celebrating their families through this sort of service, particularly due to cost. We wanted a way to further showcase the Thomasville Public Library as a community-focused space for families of all sizes, a place that is so much more than just books or digital resources. We had the means and the equipment to do it for next-to-no budget, so why not try and fill the service gap? If we have the opportunity to make Thomasville the equitable kind of community we want to live in, that’s what we’re going to strive for.”
“The response has been unbelievably humbling,” says Thomasville’s Library Services Support Technician Cody Beck, who helped conceptualize the program, and has since been responsible for staging, shooting, editing, and delivering the photos. “People have just been so grateful. We’ve had people use the program to celebrate maternity, to announce pregnancies, to honor aging or special needs family members by surrounding them with loved ones, and to celebrate recovery after surgery and hospitalization.
We’ve had several folks tell us that they’ve never had the opportunity to capture photos of their whole family together, and others tell us that these were their first photos since long-ago weddings or welcoming children. It’s an honor to be a part of so many families’ lives every day at the Library, and a joy to play a small role in celebrating them with this portrait service.”
Since its inception, “Family Portraits at the Library” has served over 375 individuals with more than 1,600 edited photos and nearly 11,000 total snapshots, all without charging a dime. While finished for the season, “Family Portraits at the Library” will return next fall.
