Bahnsen receives diversity award

Brooke Bahnsen (MS '08) was recently highlighted in the Mundelein Review for receiving the Village of Mundelein’s 2012 Diversity Award:

Brooke Bahnsen has been a librarian at Fremont Public Library in Mundelein for only three years, but she already has had a big impact in promoting diversity at the library.

Since beginning at the library in January 2009, Bahnsen of Libertyville helped start a Spanish story time for children and created a program teaching children about the cultures of different countries. She has traveled to book fairs in Guadalajara, Mexico, to buy Spanish language books and materials for the library and tutors Spanish-speaking adults on how to use the computer and basic Internet skills.

Because of those efforts, Bahnsen was one of four recipients of the Village of Mundelein’s 2012 Diversity Award. She was presented the award by Mayor Ken Kessler and the Mundelein Village Board last month.

“I was very surprised, excited and happy to represent the library,” said Bahnsen. “There are a lot of other people working toward the same goal. I like working in a library and a community that supports diversity and supports information access for all of our community members.”

According to GSLIS Assistant Professor Kate Williams, Bahnsen was a founding member of the Community Informatics Research Lab while earning her master's degree at GSLIS and conducted bilingual research and Geographic Information System (GIS) analysis as part of mapping the online presence of Chicago's ethnic communities.

Bahnsen will be speaking at eChicago 2012 on April 20.