UW Libraries Receives Core PR Xchange Award

University of Wyoming Libraries is the recipient of a Core PR Xchange Award from the American Library Association (ALA) for its Conversations on Collecting Yellowstone 2022 conference program.

The annual Core PR Xchange Awards Competition recognizes the best public relations materials produced by libraries in the past year. Entries are evaluated on content, originality, creativity and design. They are judged by marketing professionals, graphic designers, librarians and visual artists.

The Conversations on Collecting Yellowstone 2022 conference program was awarded for the special events print category. More than 215 entries were submitted from over 100 institutions, including public, academic, school, state and special libraries. The award was presented at the recent ALA annual conference.

The program was designed by Emily Hooge, a former UW Libraries graphic design intern from Sheridan. Jennifer Kirk, UW Libraries marketing and communications specialist, led in content collation, layout, editing and proofing.

“At the project’s inception, we initially consulted with colleagues in Institutional Marketing about best practices for large-format print design,” Kirk says. “To this day, I’m still amazed at how quickly Emily handled the project and simultaneously produced other designs for UW Libraries on top of her academic responsibilities. The best part of my job is offering students real-world experiences with an on-campus job. This award validates that experience for me.”

The program’s creation also was supported by Montana State University (MSU) Library colleagues. UW Libraries and the MSU Library co-hosted the conference at MSU in Bozeman, Mont. The MSU Library also won an award for its Dayton Duncan event poster from the same event.

Hooge says working with Kirk and the marketing teams from UW and MSU was “an amazing experience.” She not only learned how to create a program, but she also learned how to design with accessibility in mind, she adds.

“I am incredibly grateful to Jennifer and the rest of the UW Libraries team for trusting me to complete such a large project,” says Hooge, who received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in visual communication design in May 2022. “To date, it has been one of the designs I have been most proud of. This publication kick-started my love for print design, and I have been lucky enough to work on a number of programs since then.”