Bill Text: IL HR0933 | 2019-2020 | 101st General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Congratulates Roberta Koscielski on being named the 2020 Librarian of the Year. Further commends her dedication to the Peoria Public Library and her volunteerism for various community service initiatives.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)

Status: (Passed) 2021-01-08 - Resolution Adopted [HR0933 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2019-HR0933-Introduced.html

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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

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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

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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

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and respect.