Haines library wins national award
- Chilkat Valley News
- 10 hours ago
- 3 min read
By Rashah McChesney
Chilkat Valley News
After three years as a finalist, the Haines Borough Public Library has won the 2026 National Medal for Museum and Library Services, the nation’s highest honor for libraries.
The Institute of Museum and Library Services awards the medal each year to five libraries and five museums nationwide. The Haines library is the only Alaska institution recognized this year.
And that recognition is rare for Alaska organizations. Between 2000 and 2026, just six organizations in the state have gotten it, including the Alaska Resource Library and Information Service in Anchorage, Homer’s Pratt Museum, Craig Public Library, the Alaska State Museum in Juneau, the Kuskokwim Consortium Library in Bethel and now the Haines Borough Public Library, according to IMLS data.
Library director Reba Heaton said the award recognizes years of programming and partnerships aimed at serving the entire community.
Among the initiatives cited in the library’s application were programs developed with the Chilkoot Indian Association, including the International Cultural Exchange, which brought speakers from the Yukon, British Columbia and Juneau, and the Chilkoot-Chilkat Storyboard project, which teaches Lingít language, place names and history in the Chilkat Valley. That partnership has seen hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding for library programs.
Heaton said the IMLS also cited the library’s youth programming, including trail walks, and a healthy snacks program.
The library is one of the community’s most heavily used public spaces. In 2024, patrons checked out more than 15,000 books, including more than 8,000 children’s titles, according to library statistics.
As her office has done in the past, Sen. Lisa Murkowski nominated the library for the honor. The Haines library was a finalist for the award in 2021, 2017, and 2016.
Heaton said the process was “a little weird” this year as the IMLS did not announce finalists.
“IMLS was sort of discombobulated with the funding, not funding,” Heaton said.
In March of 2025, President Trump targeted the agency for elimination with an executive order. The proposal created uncertainty for museums and libraries across the country that rely on IMLS funding, including in the Chilkat Valley where they reduced hours and staff. But that federal funding was returned in December after 21 states sued.
“I just got a phone call. Oh, congratulations you won. OK, there was no finalist warning. I have no idea who the finalists were,” Heaton said.
In the past, winners of the award have traveled to Washington, D.C, and been presented it by the First Lady. But Heaton said she was not sure it would happen that way again this year, she was still waiting on travel and ceremony details.
For now, she said, staff are basking in the glow of the announcement.
“I got a flooded email inbox, congratulating Haines,” she said.
Now, they have to figure out how to celebrate.
“We’ll do something. Obviously, it’s known. But I think we should brag about it a little bit ourselves,” she said.
Heaton said the award is valuable because it comes with $10,000 and a lot of attention from outsiders which can be valuable for things like grant-writing.
“Having the Best Small Library in America in 2005 and then the national medal in 2026 … puts us on the radar of people around the country,” she said. “They say, OK this is a city that supports a library that does that. It says what the people are like. The people support their library. We can’t do this with an unfunded library.”
• This article originally appeared in the Chilkat Valley News.
