CHAPEL HILL – The Chapel Hill Public Library‘s new director is bringing with her an award with national recognition.

Sunday, Susan Brown will receive the 2013 John Cotton Dana Library Public Relations Award for a project she was involved in to celebrate “Banned Books Week”. She created that program as the marking director at Lawrence Public Library in Lawrence, Kansas. Banned Books Week is a yearly event that brings attention to censorship of books and runs from September 22 to 28 each year.

“It’s for a project there that I spearheaded, so at the conference this weekend in Chicago, I will be accepting the award on their behalf,” Brown says.

Brown’s project had local Lawrence artists design trading cards based on banned books or authors, which were then given away on each day of Banned Books Week.

The project got Lawrence Public Library national and international attention and Brown says this year, there should be multiple libraries doing similar projects. And the Chapel Hill Public Library could be among them.

“I’m going into a meeting to discuss the possibility of doing the Banned Books trading cards project here,” Brown says.

According to the American Library Association, the John Cotton Dana Library Public Relations Award is the most prestigious award the organization gives.

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