Kanab City Library receives Quality Library Award from State Library Director’s Summit

The Kanab City Library received a prestigious award the week of Sep­tember 21. The Utah State Library hosts a yearly Di­rector’s Summit, at which they present a few select libraries around the state the Quality Library award; Kanab City Library Staff have applied for the reward a few years running, and after efforts to refine their application and make the Kanab library outstand­ing, they received the 2025 award.

Photo via Kanab City Library

Per the State Library award page, “Every year, we host a three-day event for library directors to network, learn, and collabo­rate. One of the highlights of the Directors Summit is presenting the Quality Library awards. There’s no red carpet or paparazzi but receiving the Qual­ity Library Award speaks volumes for the recipients.

The Quality Library Award is determined dur­ing recertification, where Utah public libraries sub­mit reports and data to indicate their services are in accordance with Utah State Library standards. The Quality Library Award is a secondary application for library directors to indi­cate the work they and their staff have accomplished rises above and beyond the standards. The Quality Library Award provides an opportunity for the State Library to highlight trans­formational services that might not be obvious in the standard recertification process.”

When asked about what sorts of efforts qualified the library for the award, Ja­naLee Peay with the Kanab City Library Staff shares, “Our staff at the Kanab City Library has worked so hard this year. We have had more programs than other years. We have been able to collaborate with so many amazing groups around our community on events and programs. This award was such a team ef­fort with staff and patrons all doing their part. Our calendar year is from July to June and the library had 214 events with 4399 attending those events dur­ing that time. During this year we had 22,669 visitors to the library with 37,858 physical items checked out and 20,705 digital items enjoyed by our patron on the Libby app. We hope to continue moving forward with services and programs that our community can use and enjoy.”

The Kanab City Library not only continues with its efforts to preserve and share books and other me­dia with the community, but they also function as a center for community ac­tivities, from lectures and educational content to rec­reation like tabletop games and community reading. For more information, visit their social media pages, their website and com­munity calendar and their entries in the Southern Utah News.