The former Dunedin city councillor and St Kilda borough deputy mayor has spent nearly 30 years lobbying for a South Dunedin library, and it was only this year a pop-up version finally emerged.
The citation was not the only outcome for Mrs Turvey.
She also learnt a lesson she shared at a well attended event at the Dunedin City Library yesterday.
''If you want to find your way through a local body and achieve your ends, never give up.''
Mrs Turvey received the annual award for longstanding advocacy and support for library services, after championing the cause of a South Dunedin library since an amalgamation of councils in 1989.
The citation recognises the contribution of writers, artists, researchers, sponsors and others to the libraries, and is awarded to a local resident who has made a long and outstanding contribution to the libraries' collections, services or programmes.
Library services manager Bernie Hawke said Mrs Turvey's tenacity, drive and enthusiasm continued long after she stepped down from local government.
She was rewarded for her persistence when she was invited to open the South Dunedin Community Pop-Up in September.
That followed many years of turning up at annual plan hearings to present submissions on the issue.
Mrs Turvey said she was ''overwhelmed'' to receive the citation.
South Dunedin got plenty of bad press, but she had found, despite some of the issues the suburb had, reading was ''vital to the people of the area''.
