Home ACRL honors the 2005 award winners

ACRL honors the 2005 award winners: A recognition of professional achievement

C&RL News, March 2005
Vol. 66, No. 3

by Megan Bielefeld

ACRL Excellence in Academic Libraries winners announced
The winners of the 2005 Excellence in Academic Libraries Award are the Pierce College Library, Lakewood and Puyallup, Washington; Mount Holyoke College Library, South Hadley, Massachusetts; and the University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Virginia. Sponsored by ACRL and Blackwell’s Book Services, the award recognizes the staff of a college, university, and community college library for programs that deliver exemplary services and resources to further the educational mission of the institution.

“Receiving an Excellence in Academic Libraries Award is a national tribute to a library and its staff for the outstanding services, programs, and leadership they provide to their students, administrators, faculty, and community,” said Mary Ellen K. Davis, ACRL executive director.

Pierce College Library
The Pierce College Library, winner in the community college category, was recognized for being a national leader in outcomes assessment focused on student learning.

“Pierce College librarians and staff work as a team with faculty in achieving the five core elements of a Pierce education, particularly information literacy, which enables students to achieve personal, academic, and workplace goals,” said Helen Spalding, chair of the 2005 Excellence in Academic Libraries Selection Committee. “Pierce College Library is the only community college library in the nation to support an INTEL Computer Clubhouse, by leading an innovative collaboration with the local school district and city government to provide Computer Clubhouse members, ages 10–18, with an opportunity to explore their creativity and learn how to learn.”

^{Staff of the Pierce College Library}

Mount Holyoke College Library
Mount Holyoke College Library, winner in the college category, demonstrated excellence as a team in furthering the educational mission of its college.

“They have provided leadership in the college planning process; creatively combined the college’s library, computing, and media services; and designed new learning spaces and services,” said Spalding. “They exemplify the college library delivering services relevant to the needs of students and faculty in the new century.”

_{Mount Holyoke College Library}

University of Virginia Library
The University of Virginia Library, winner in the university category, was selected for its broad, deep, and early innovation that has proven its effectiveness over time and is being emulated by other academic libraries as they reposition their services for the future.

“The University of Virginia librarians and staff collaborate in listening to and responding to student needs,” said Spalding. “They were one of the first to provide a coffee café in the library and to provide technology and technology skill development for faculty to integrate information technology into the curriculum. They are leaders in collection digitization. Through innovation, responsiveness, and partnerships across campus, the University of Virginia Library furthers the university’s mission with demonstrated outcome achievement.”

Each winning library will receive $3,000 and a plaque, to be presented at an award ceremony held on each recipient’s campus. The winners also will receive special recognition at the ACRL President’s Program during the ALA Annual Conference in Chicago, on Monday, June 27, 2005, at 1:30 p.m.

_{Harrison Institute/Small Library
at the University of Virginia}

Ward receives Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship
Susan Ward Aber, a doctoral degree candidate in the School of Library and Information Management, Emporia State University, has been awarded the 2005 ACRL Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship for her proposal, “Information Needs and Behaviors of Geoscience Educations: A Grounded Theory Study.” Her research will investigate the information needs and behaviors of geoscientists to support teaching in an academic workplace. The fellowship is sponsored by Thomson Scientific and fosters research in academic librarianship by encouraging and supporting dissertation research.

Ward Aber received her B.S. in Geology from the University of Kansas at Lawrence, KS, 1977, and is a professional gemologist with a degree certificate from the Gemological Institute of America, Carlsbad, CA, 1987. She has been the U.S. Depository Map Library manager for William Allen White Library at Emporia State University since 1997 and a lecturer in the Earth Science Department since 1988.

Dolores Fidishun, chair of the selection committee, said, “Ms. Ward Aber’s dissertation will explore important concepts about the information needs and behaviors of geosciences faculty to support their teaching. It can also create a model that will have applications for future subject specific studies of this topic in other disciplines.”
The award of $1,500 and a plaque will be presented during the ACRL President’s Program on Monday, June 27, at 1:30 p.m.

Rockman wins IS Miriam Dudley Instruction Librarian Award
Ilene F. Rockman, manager of the Information Competence Initiative at California State University’s Office of the Chancellor, is the winner of the ACRL Instruction Section’s (IS) Miriam Dudley Instruction Librarian Award. The award honors Miriam Dudley, whose efforts in the field of information literacy lead to the formation of the ACRL Instruction Section. The honor recognizes a librarian who has made a significant contribution to the advancement of instruction in a college or research library environment.

“Dr. Ilene Rockman is a true guiding force for information literacy program coordinators and instruction librarians nationwide, and her numerous professional accomplishments represent a forward-thinking vision of information literacy pedagogy that is strategic, empowering, and ultimately transformational,” wrote Dudley chair Keith Gresham. “Dr. Rockman possesses a long and distinguished record of presentations, papers, articles, chapters, and edited works related to information literacy and instruction, along with an equally impressive series of national-level service appointments and information literacy consultant experiences.

“Widely recognized as a tireless advocate for advancing the teaching role of librarians on campus, Dr. Rockman has demonstrated unprecedented leadership as manager of the California State University system-wide Information Competence Initiative,” said Gresham. “In this position she has successfully promoted the primacy of campus partnerships in information literacy programs and advanced the integration of information concepts and skills into the learning outcomes of academic departments and disciplines throughout the 23 campuses that make up the CSU system.

“Under Dr. Rockman’s guidance, the CSU initiative, remarkable in its scope and scale, proudly stands as a model for colleges and universities around the country. Dr Rockman is currently coordinating the CSU’s activities related to the testing and launch of a unique performance-based student assessment instrument developed by the Educational Testing Service (ETS) in partnership with several leading colleges and universities.”

Rockman received her M.S. in library science from the University of Southern California, in 1974, and her M.A. in education (curriculum and instruction) from Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo in 1978. She earned her Ph.D. in educational policy/organization studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1985.

The award is sponsored by Elsevier Science on behalf of its journal Research Strategies. A check for $1,250 and a plaque will be presented to Rockman during the IS Program on Sunday, June 26, at 1:30 p.m.

Slyhoff honored with LPSS Marta Lange/CQ Press Award
Merle J. Slyhoff, document delivery & auxiliary services librarian and lecturer-in-law at the University of Pennsylvania, has been named the 2005 recipient of Marta Lange/CQ Press Award. The award, established in 1996 by the ACRL Law and Political Science Section (LPSS), honors an academic or law librarian who has made distinguished contributions to bibliography and information service in law or political science.

“Merle has made extraordinary and sustained contributions to librarianship, scholarship, research, and service to the profession,” said Binh Le, chair of the Marta Lange Award Committee.

In addition to her exemplary records of leadership and service in ALA, including ACRL’s LPSS, her other contributions include the creation of the American Association of Law Libraries’ (AALL) “The Document Delivery Caucus” in 1994, a network for law librarians to discuss document delivery and interlibrary issues; the video and DVD collection at the University of Pennsylvania’s Biddle Law Library, which contains more than 1,400 law and related titles; and a Web site to support a distinctive law school course entitled “Law and the Holocaust.”

She has been the General Editor of Law Books in Print since 2001, and has written articles for the Law Library Journal, Trends in Law Library Management and Technology, Wilson Library Bulletin, and The Video Annual.
Merle received her A.B. from Rutgers University in 1971, and her M.S.L.S. from Drexel University in 1977.
CQ Press, sponsor of the award, will present the $1,000 award and plaque at the Marta Lange/CQ Press Luncheon on Saturday, June 25, at 11:30 a.m.

Samuel Lazerow Fellowship
Kristin R. Eschenfelder of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has been selected to receive the 2005 ACRL Samuel Lazerow Fellowship for Research in Technical Services or Acquisitions for her research proposal entitled “Investigating the Impact of Digital Rights Management Systems on Libraries: A Pilot Study.”

Sponsored by Thomson Scientific, the award fosters advances in collection development and technical services by providing fellowships to librarians for travel or writing in those fields.

Eschenfelder received her B.A. in Latin American studies/Spanish from the College of William and Mary in 1992. She earned her M.S. in telecommunications and network management in 1996 from Syracuse University, where she also received her Ph.D. in 2000.

The award of $1,000 and a plaque will be presented at the ACRL President’s Program at the ALA Annual Conference in Chicago on Monday, June 27, at 1:30 p.m.

Coutts Nijhoff Study Grant
Charlene Kellsey, assistant professor and acting head of the Original Monographic Cataloging Unit at the University of Colorado, has been selected to receive the 2005 Coutts Nijhoff International West European Specialist Study Grant. This grant covers airfare to and from Europe, transportation in Europe, and lodging and board for up to fourteen (14) days. The primary criterion for awarding the grant is the significance and utility of the proposed project as a contribution to the study of the acquisition, organization, or use of library materials from or relating to Western Europe.

Kellsey proposes to develop a collection-level description of the resources held in the Mediathèque d’Arles for the benefit of historians of medieval France. “Charlene Kellsey’s study will be very useful for the scholarly community,” said committee chair Katalin Radics.

Kellsey received her B.A. in Medieval studies from Skidmore College in 1973, and her M.L.S. from the University of Maryland in 1976. She earned her M.A. in history from San Jose State University in 1999.

Kellsey will receive her plaque and 4,500 Euros at the WESS general membership meeting at the ALA Annual Conference in Chicago on Monday, June 27, at 9:30 a.m.