Last night ILA held their awards banquet. A fun time was had by all.  It was announced that Representative Scott Bedke and Representative Maxine Bell would share the honor of Legislator of the Year for their support of LiLI Unlimited and their assistance in identifying $300,000 in state funds for the program.

The Librarian of the Year is Luise House from the Mountain Home Public Library.  Luise has been leading the Mountain Home library for some time. In the past couple of years, the library was successful in winning a bond election for funds to build a new library. That library has been built and and the beautiful new building is open for business. Luise is currently leading her library in an automation project during which they will be joining the Lynx Consortium.

The Idaho Book of the Year is Deep Dark by Gregg Olsen.  The author gave a moving talk about the book and, more importantly, about the people in his book.  91 miners were killed in a terrible disaster in 1972. This book tells their story.  I couldn’t see the rest of the room, but I know there were some tears and misty eyes around table at which I sat.  Go read this book!