The Four County Library System unveiled the winning design of its library card design contest, featuring a local woman’s dog, at the Huntington Memorial Library Friday, April 24, toward the end of National Library Week.
Created by Christy Harasimowicz, of Oneonta, the winning design shows her dog Kiko, a poodle mixed with a cavalier King Charles spaniel, wearing glasses and reading a book. The word “Read” is spelled out above her head with two paw prints completing the design.
“Along with loving our dog and the joy that she brings us, I like to draw and create art in general,” Harasimowicz. “It’s a very happy and satisfying process. To be able to share something about her that makes me happy about life, along with a hobby that I like to do, it just felt right.”
She said it took her at least a day’s work, here and there, to create the piece. Harasimowicz said she has been making art for as long as she can remember, adding that she took a break during college to focus on her studies and has been getting back into it.
A frequent visitor of the Huntington Memorial Library, Harasimowicz said she sometimes has the opportunity to visit other libraries in the system through her work as a caseworker for the Otsego County Office for the Aging.
Steven Bachman, executive director of the Four County Library System, said Friday there were more than 70 entries from all four counties, which were on display during the unveiling. He said every library received at least 50 cards with the winning design, while some ordered more. The special edition cards with the winning design will be available until supplies run out.
“We were able to see really a strong outpouring of love and support for our public libraries, which we always love to see,” Bachman said. “The fact that they came from every corner of the system just made it even better.”
Circe McKenney, the professional development coordinator at Four County who ran the design contest, said the library card committee, made up library staff across the four counties and the system, chose the top 25 designs. Those entries went to a public vote. The 10 finalists went to a vote between all member library staff, resulting in a winner and two runners up.
Carmela Petruccelli, from the Bainbridge Free Library, and Ashley Williamson, from the Broome County Public Library, hold the runner up honors.
Petruccelli’s card design featured a library at the end of a long yellow pathway, and Williamson’s showcased a man reading a book next to a boy flying a kite made up of pages of a book. The road they are standing on is made up of words, and the back drop behind them is the spines of books, including “War and Peace.”
Harasimowicz will receive a mixed media studio easel art set, two tickets to Fenimore Art Museum, Fenimore Farm and Country Village and the National Baseball Hall of Fame as the winning artist. She additionally was awarded a one-year complimentary museum membership to the Roberson Museum and Science Center in Binghamton.
The two runners-up will each get a mixed media art set and two tickets to Fenimore Art Museum, Fenimore Farm and Country Village and the National Baseball Hall of Fame in, in addition to four tickets to the Roberson Museum and Science Center.
To submit an entry, an individual needed to have a library card or have somebody in the family with a card.
“It was a good incentive to go get a library card if you didn’t already have one,” McKenney said.
The contest had support from Stewart’s Shops, the Fenimore Art Museum and the Roberson Museum and Science Center. Bachman said system resources also were used for the printing.
The contest ran from Sept. 1 to Sept. 30, inviting all card holders within the system to participate, according to Daily Star archives. Any submitted artwork was required to be an original creation. Library card dimensions are 2 1/8 inches by 3 3/8 inches.
“It was really exciting for us, and the community seemed excited,” said Huntington Memorial Library Director Alex Benjamin. “I’m over the moon that a Huntington library patron won. It’s such a cute card.”
The card expressed “happiness about reading,” said Susan Frisbee, library director at the Cannon Free Library in Delhi. She added that she thinks both children and adults will like it.
“I’m excited that people are going to be able to see it and enjoy it,” Harasimowicz said.