Cedar Rapids Public Library receives Jerry Kline Community Impact Prize

CEDAR RAPIDS — The Cedar Rapids Public Library has received the Jerry Kline Community Impact Prize to recognize the library’s influence on the community.

The award was presented Jan. 30 during a celebration at the American Library Association’s LibLearnX Conference in New Orleans, according to a news release.

The Jerry Kline Community Impact prize was developed in partnership by Library Journal and the Gerald M. Kline Family Foundation. Created in 2019, the prize recognizes the public library as a vital community asset, and is given to one library in North America each year to acknowledge that library’s impact in its community.

The prize includes a $250,000 award to the Cedar Rapids Public Library from the Gerald M. Kline Family Foundation. The library also was featured on the November cover of Library Journal.

“Cedar Rapids Public Library has made a huge impact through its close connections with civic leadership and community — exactly what this prize seeks to spotlight and honor,” Jerry Kline, CEO of the Gerald M. Kline Family Foundation, said in a statement.

The award highlights initiatives such as the library’s Mobile Technology Lab, as well as community and civic partnerships that broaden the library’s reach based on its three strategic pillars of literacy, access and inclusion.

“We are a stronger library because of the relationships we have with our city and county leadership,” Library Director Dara Schmidt said. “We are a stronger community because of the support our nonprofits and library give each other. We’re grateful this award recognizes the value of those partnerships.”

Schmidt said the money awarded to the library “will go toward furthering the library’s strategic goals, including the development of a permanent westside library.”

The westside library will be situated on 27 acres at the corner of 20th Avenue and Wiley Boulevard SW. The permanent library space will interplay with housing, open space and other amenities.

Once complete, it will replace the Ladd Library, 3750 Williams Blvd. SW, a leased space that opened in 2013 and was established through a grant from the Hall-Perrine Foundation.

The Cedar Rapids Public Library Foundation already has committed $2 million to the new facility. Linn County allocated $4 million and Cedar Rapids awarded $6 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds, so the project has secured at least $12 million of the $25 million total.

To plug the remaining gap, the library is seeking $3 million through other state and federal resources. A community investment campaign is looking to raise $10 million.

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