Milwaukee Public Library Nominated For Prestigious Peabody Award
Public institution finds itself up against tv shows and movies that line its shelves.
The Milwaukee Public Library’s Central Library, 814 W. Wisconsin Ave. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.
What do Bluey, The Bear and the Milwaukee Public Library have in common?
They’re all nominees for the 84th annual Peabody Awards.
The library is nominated for its innovative use of Instagram and TikTok.
To the delight of social media users, for two years MPL has leaned on popular culture references and humorous videos to promote the city’s library system and its events.
The Peabody Awards, designed more than a half-century ago as the radio industry’s equivalent to the Pulitzer Prize, recognize the best and most important public service in electronic media.
“Respected for its integrity and revered for its standards of excellence, the Peabody is an honor like no other for television, podcast/radio, and streaming media,” says the organization’s website.
MPL is a nominee in the Interactive & Immersive category.
“Milwaukee Public Library uses TikTok and Instagram to educate their community on what libraries offer and get young people excited about books at a time when book bans are increasing across the country. Using memes, trending music, and pop culture references, the library’s accounts highlight real library users, librarians, and library features in fresh and fun ways,” says the nomination.
Other nominees in the category included The Washington Post’s “The Blast Effect” series, the “Defunctland” YouTube channel, the Instagram-based micro-documentary “The Hidden History of Racism in New York City,” art and murder mystery console game “Pentiment,” Meta’s virtual reality experience “Reimagined,” virtual music project and console game “We Are OFK,” and Uktraine virtual reality experience “You Destroy. We Create.”
The winners will be announced on May 9. A ceremony honoring them will be held on June 11.
Unlike the Academy Awards or Emmys, the Peabody winners are selected by a jury. From a field of approximately 60, 30 winners will be selected.
MPL has already garnered national acclaim for its videos. In December 2022, The Today Show featured the library’s work.
And even as the library staff has turned over, the fun has kept going. There isn’t a dedicated “Library Social Media” line item in the city budget, so the effort is driven by library employees and, often enough, their families.
A department within city government, the library is led by Joan Johnson.
One challenge looms on the horizon: the potential shutdown of TikTok in the U.S. MPL could lose access to its more than 125,000 subscribers.
On Wednesday, President Joe Biden signed into law a delayed-implementation requirement that, to address security concerns, the service be sold by its Chinese-affiliated owner, ByteDance. The social media network has been singled out because of data privacy concerns with its foreign ownership and heavy reliance on an algorithmic recommendation engine.
The loss of TikTok wouldn’t be the end of the library’s fun. MPL has more than 210,000 followers on Instagram.
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Congratulations to the talented staff of the Milwaukee Public Library. One of Milwaukee’s greatest treasures.
Indeed, Kate! Bravo, MPL!