RHPL Receives Global Recognition

Rochester Hills Public Library was announced as a finalist in the Clarivate Library Innovation Awards, an annual program designed to recognize and support innovation in academic, national, and public libraries worldwide, for the design of its Kids Catalog.

Developed in-house, the Kids Catalog was recognized for its “developmentally-appropriate discovery interface for children through teens, combining professional Early Childhood Literacy expertise with intentional technical design.” 

The finished product is the result of a collaboration between Youth Services and the IT and Public Relations Departments, who worked together to ensure the catalog was created for its end user. Limited to materials in the Youth Services collections, the catalog features a design focused on new items, subjects, and series searches, with simple image-based prompts to help kids use the catalog independently and discover their next favorite book or series organically. 

Director Juliane Morian applauded the recognition, saying, “RHPL is always looking for ways to make the library experience more accessible, more modern, and more user-focused, and the Kids Catalog is the perfect intersection of those three goals. Seeing the result of collaborative library work enjoyed by our youngest patrons and their parents is as rewarding as the honor itself.”

RHPL was among three finalists in the public library category, competing with projects from Suffolk Public Library and Santa Clarita Public Library. Finalist libraries were selected by an independent panel of judges, which included leaders from international library organizations. Through a press release, Clarivate shared that “The panel reviewed over 50 diverse, high-caliber entries from 11 countries and regions that demonstrated innovation, creativity, and the impact of libraries on their patrons, students, and communities. From grassroots literacy and outreach programs to enterprise-level automation, analytics, and AI, the submissions reveal the breadth of innovation shaping libraries as modern service and knowledge hubs.”

RHPL will be recognized on stage during the Innovative User Group Conference on April 13 in Chicago, IL, where the winner will be announced. As a finalist, RHPL will receive two all-expense-paid passes for staff to attend the 2027 Innovative User Group Conference in Boston, MA.

Browse the RHPL Kids Catalog at kids.rhpl.org. Read more about the award at iii.com/whats-new.