If you’ve regularly visited the Cobb County Public Library web pages over the past couple of years, you’ll realize that the library system has posted a lot of informative information about the 2020 Census, including this page explaining the importance of the census to our county.

The Cobb County Public Library Census Committee was presented a certificate of recognition by the Cobb Board of Commissioners (BOC) Tuesday for their work in promoting and explaining the census.

The event that prompted this recognition was that the committee won the 2021 Georgia Library Association (GLA) Team Award for the 2020 Census initiative.

District 1 Commissioner Keli Gambrill said in presenting the certificate, “Your contribution to increase participation in census data despite the challenges of COVID-19 helped aid in research for important topics such as political districts, federal funding, long term planning, industry, research on customers and patrons, etc.”

“Your hard work did not go unnoticed, as it was featured in the first edition of the 2020 Census Best Practices Showcases,” she said.

Cobb’s Director of Public Services William Tanks accepted the award on behalf of the Cobb Public Library and thanked Jessica Guinn, the Director of the Community Development department for reaching out to the libraries.

“There’s not a lot of trust, sometimes when it comes to the census,” he said. “So I want to give a shout out to Community Development. Jessica and her team,” he said. “They really knew who to reach out to … who did the public trust, what did the community feel comfortable going to, and that was our Cobb libraries.”

“And these folks did an outstanding excellent job,” Tanks said.

About the Georgia Library Association Team Award

The Georgia Library Association describes the Team Award on its website as follows:

GLA Team Award was established by the Executive Board in 2012. This award honors a team that has excelled in the past year by offering innovative programming or services, performing or acting on assessment activities, undertaking a successful outreach or promotion effort, or providing outstanding support of an individual Georgia library or Georgia libraries as a whole. Any group of two or more people, working in a Georgia library (or enrolled in an MLIS program and affiliated with a Georgia library), of whom all are current GLA members, is eligible.

About the Cobb County Library

According to the Cobb County Library website:

Cobb County Public Library is a 15-branch system headquartered in Marietta, Georgia, where its staff members serve a diverse population of over 750,000 people. Cobb is one of Georgia’s fastest-growing counties, and Cobb County Public Library is dedicated to being a resource center in the community by providing equal access to information, materials, and services.