Children's library services are an important part of every public library's operation, as evidenced by many documents and guidelines that deal with the topic. Reading is an important part of shaping a child into a thinking and emotional person. Therefore it is important that they read quality books. We can separate them from more commercial books with various literary awards. The Golden Pear Award, presented by the Ljubljana City Library - Pionirska for approximately the last ten years, is one such award. With it, they label the books that they find to be of highest quality according to content, appearance or editorial perfection in yearly book production. But do library users even know the Golden Pear Award? What other factors may also influence book choices? I examined this in my thesis via three methods: analysis of COBISS data, interviewing librarians and surveying users (parents of small children and young adults). I compared the Domžale Library with its units in Trzin and Šentvid. I concluded that books that won the Golden Pear award have been checked out increasingly more often in the past five years, but there is still very few of them on the list of the 100 most checked out books at the children's and young adult section. Librarians find labelling books with golden pears important, but for different reasons: making choices easier for library users; making recommendations easier for themselves; and for the purpose of procurement. Only less than half of the Domžale Library users know the Golden Pear Award. They find subject matter, quality and instructiveness (parents) more important when choosing books. Young adults know the Golden Pear Award better than parents, but they do not find it as important when choosing books. The frequency of library visits influences the knowledge of the Golden Pear Award, which is highest in the Šentvid unit.
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