Springfield Library Wins $15k Prize

In April, the asked township residents  Today, it looks like you came through.

On Friday, May 11, Library Director Susan Permahos learned that the library had won the top $15,000 prize in a worldwide contest sponsored by the EMC Corporation Heritage Trust. Springfield residents were urged to voted in the contest; judging from the victory, it looks like the urging worked.

Permahos was exuberant at the news. 

"I'm running around telling everyone," Permahos said. "I'm so excited."

As Patch reported in early April, the Springfield Library was one of seven finalists in an international contest sponsored by the EMC Corporation Heritage Trust. The money is earmarked for the digitization of historic documents. The Springfield Library plans to digitize the Donald B. Palmer collection of historical documents, photographs, publications and regalia that includes pieces that date back to 1789.

The collection was started by Donald B. Palmer of Springfield in 1939 when the Board of Trustees of the Springfield Library allocated $25 for Palmer's first acquisitions and continued unto his death in 1982.

The Reach Gallery Museum Abbotsford in British Columbia and the CyArk organization in Oakland, CA took second and third prizes of $10,000 and $5,000, respectively.