Cranford Public Library Wins Best Practices Award

The Cranford Public Library was recently selected to receive the 2016 Best Practices in Early Literacy Award for its Family M.E.S.S. (Math, Engineering and Science Saturday) program, which was initiated and administered by Children’s Librarian Lauren Antolino. The Family M.E.S.S. program enables families to undertake hands-on experiments, solve problems, learn, and have fun, all at the same time. The Best Practices Award, given by the New Jersey State Library, honors four outstanding public libraries that currently provide exemplary literacy programs for children from birth to six years, their families, and caregivers. The award provides a $1,000 honorarium, a certificate, and promotion of the winning library as a model program for other libraries. The winning libraries will be honored on May 18 at the Annual New Jersey Library Association Conference. For more information about children’s programs at the library, go to cranford.com/library and click on Children’s Room.