Sunset Park Library Wins $20,000 For Its Positive Community Impact

• Pictured: the Sunset Park Library. Image via Google Maps

SUNSET PARK, BROOKLYN — It's official: the Sunset Park Library is one of Brooklyn's best branches, and it's getting a $20,000 check to prove it.

The library was one of five winners of the third annual NYC Neighborhood Library Awards, a friendly competition designed to reward the city's best-performing and most beloved libraries.

The award — part of what New York Magazine dubbed the "Oscars of libraries" — is funded by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation and the Charles H. Revson Foundation.

During its nomination process, residents can write in and explain why their local branches deserve recognition. About 19,000 nominations were received for this year's awards city-wide, according to Revson spokeswoman Maria Marcantonio.

As a winner, the Sunset Park Library will receive $20,000 in prize money to use for infrastructure or programming.

A video on the Library Awards website explaining Sunset Park's selection highlights the legal and language assistance the library's staffers provide to Spanish-speaking immigrants.

But the award comes at a precarious time for the Sunset Park institution.

It's current location at 5108 4th St. might be demolished, with a new library rebuilt inside an affordable housing development to be erected on the site by the Fifth Avenue Committee, a local non-profit.

The process would take about two years, during which the Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) has said it would open a smaller library in the former courthouse at 4201 4th Ave.

The Fifth Avenue Committee has argued the plan will give locals a modern facility that can't be delivered under the BPL's budget.

But a group of activists, lead by Citizens Defending Libraries, want the city to increase its library spending, rather than turning to privatization to shore up branches in need of refurbishment.

The city has yet to approve the redevelopment deal. If accepted, construction would likely start in 2017.