Nominations for 2026 are now open!

Does your library do great things with community partners? Share your story in the Fourth Annual I Partner with My Public Library Awards.

The call for nominations will remain open through August 31, 2026.

Here is a direct link to the nomination form, and below are the questions this form asks you to complete.

2026 Award Nomination Form

Part 1. Your library, Your Partner, and Your Community.

1. Name and location of your library
2. Brief description of population served by your library
3. Name of partner you’re nominating
4. Your name, title, and contact email

Part 2. The Partnership (Suggested word limit: 150 words per question, except Question 3 which may run up to 250 words. The total nomination should be under 1,500 words)

1. How did the partnership get started, and how long has it been in existence – or, if it was a project-based collaboration, how long did the project run?
2. What community need or needs does the partnership address?
3. Please share one specific story, moment, or interaction that illustrates the impact of this partnership on the people you serve.
4. What evidence do you have of impact? If possible, please include at least one specific number — attendance figures, people served, funds raised, resources provided, or any other metric that captures what this partnership has accomplished.
5. How has this partnership benefited both your library and your partner organization? What does each side bring to the relationship, and what does each side gain?
6. How would you describe the working relationship between your library and the partner?
7. If you think this model could work in other communities, what would a librarian need to do to activate it?
8. Is there anything else you’d like us to know? You are also welcome to submit photos, links to media coverage, or other supporting materials.

To get inspired to submit a nomination, check out who won in 2025, 2024, and 2023. Also check out the “Stories of Partnerships” webpage. Over the last three years, we have received so many amazing nominations, but we’re only able to award 10 partners a year. This Stories of Partnerships webpage serves to showcase many of the other amazing stories we’ve received over the years.

The awardees in 2026 will be announced on October 1, with an online Awards ceremony open to all occurring in mid-November.

As in previous years, a team of volunteer reviewers makes these awards possible. Awards reviewers will spend approximately 3-5 hours reviewing nominations and filling out an online form based on that review. Learn more and serve as a reviewer! You can both submit a nomination and serve as a reviewer: We’ll make sure you don’t review your own nomination!

We can’t wait to see your nominations! Join us in this celebration of the power of community partnerships.

These annual awards were started in 2023 after a three-year national (U.S.) study determined that the most impactful public library initiatives require strong community partnerships with a wide range of collaborators. We’re thrilled to shine a light on library partnerships through this endeavor.

The goal of these annual awards is two-fold: (1) to celebrate the amazing work that is only possible when public libraries collaborate with community partners, and (2) to highlight opportunities for both public libraries and potential community partners to start and extend collaborations.

You can also learn more about this effort in this article published on OCLC/WebJunction.

Intergenerational connections thanks to partnership between Elmwood: An Inspira Health Group Senior Care Facility and Hubbard Public Library, a 2024 Honorable Mention.

Why does Let’s Move in Libraries sponsor this award?

Since 2016, the non-profit organization Let’s Move in Libraries has been a national and international voice advocating for strengthened partnerships between public libraries and others that want our communities to be healthier places for all. Through this work, we have seen that public libraries can do a lot to promote health, but this health promotion work is almost always made possible by community partners and community collaborators. Recognizing a gap around this topic, in 2023 Let’s Move in Libraries launched the annual I Partner with My Public Library Award to begin the process of creating a platform to celebrate and acknowledge the crucial work of community collaborators to the work of public librarianship. This award is open to all partners, not only those focused on health promotion.