Borough library manager wins prestigious award
S SHOP OUR CLASSIFIED S
PAGES EVERY WEEK AND
SAVE MONEY www.bxtimes.com
BRONX TIMES R 56 EPORTER, JUNE 7-13, 2019 BTR
DONATE YOUR CAR
Wheels For Wishes
benefiting
Make-A-Wish®
Metro New York
* 100% Tax Deductible
* Free Vehicle Pickup ANYWHERE
* We Accept Most Vehicles Running or Not
* We Also Accept Boats, Motorcycles & RVs
WheelsForWishes.org
* Car Donation Foundation d/b/a Wheels For Wishes. To learn more about our programs or
Call:(917)336-1254
A Trusted Name In The Community For Over 50 Years
CHERICO REAL ESTATE
ONX, NY
BY PATRICK ROCCHIO
A borough library administrator
has won a prestigious
prize widely regarded as ‘the
Nobel Prize of city government.’
The Fund for the City of
New York honored Gesille
Dixon of Parkchester, who
has a position with the New
York Public Library where
she provides leadership for 35
borough branches, with the
Sloan Public Service Award.
The award, which comes
with a $10,000 prize, is given
to just six employees every
year out of a municipal
workforce consisting of over
300,000 people.
Depending on the generation,
the awards are sometimes
called the ‘Oscars of
public service’ or the ‘Nobel
prize of public service,’ said
Mary McCormick, president
of the Fund of the City of New
York.
The honor was presented
to Dixon at the Bronx Library
Center on Thursday, May 23
as part of a bus tour where
she and fi ve fellow winners
of the award were celebrated
in a place where their work is
clearly visible.
Dixon, who has lived in
the borough for 18 years, said
that in her role, offi cially titled
NYPL borough director
of Bronx Neighborhood Networks,
she is only as good
as the branch managers and
staff that work with her to
ensure library patrons have
positive and helpful experiences.
The library manager
said that after immigrating
from Trinidad and Tabago
when she was 13-years-old,
the library in her Connecticut
home town became a haven
and later a source of opportunity
as it provided her
with summer employment
throughout high school and
college.
“Libraries have always
been gateways, it is a gateway
to foreign lands, to creativity
and imagination, but it is also
a gateway to a better education,
to job resources, to citizenship
and to a very caring
community,” said Dixon.
Dixon said that libraries
serve a critical role as community
centers and gathering
places, adding that today they
are about much more than
collections of books.
They are places where a
patron on a job search can
explore whether or not they
want to pursue a new career
free of charge by exploring a
particular line of work, for
example, or get information
about assistance they may
need with housing while their
children participate in educational
programing, she said.
She began her career in
the Woodstock branch in the
south Bronx and feel in love
with the vibrancy of the borough,
she said.
Dixon who initially pursued
a career in the medical
fi eld before discovering it
wasn’t for her, took a cut in
salary and went back to school
to become a librarian, always
recalling her fi rst visit to an
American library where she
was in awe of the collections
of books and the wealth of
available information.
Dixon, like all winners
of the Sloan Public Service
Awards, which are now in
their 46th year, was thoroughly
vetted.
After passing initial
phases of investigation, each
award recipient had a report
commissioned about the work
they do that included interviews
with colleagues and
subordinates before coming
to selection panel of people
outside of the core organization
of The Fund For the City
of New York, said McCormick.
“We don’t put anyone before
the outside selection
panel if we don’t think they
would be an honor to the
award,” said McCormick.
Dixon, who is a breast cancer
survivor, said that she understands
a branch manager
who won the award several
years ago nominated her.
Gesille Dixon (l) accepts a check for $10,000 that accompanies each 2019
Sloan Public Service Award during a presentation at the Bronx Library
Center on Thursday, May 23rd from Mary McCormick, president of the
Fund for the City of New York.
Photo courtesy of the Fund for the City of New York
/www.bxtimes.com
/www.bxtimes.com
/WheelsForWishes.org