Gilchrist wins ACRL/IS Miriam Dudley Instruction Librarian Award
Debra L. Gilchrist, dean of library and media services of the Pierce College District, 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 led to the formation of IS. The honor recognizes a librarian who has made a significant contribution to the advancement of instruction in a college or research library environment.The award is sponsored by Elsevier on behalf of its library and information science program. A check for $1,000 and a plaque will be presented to Gilchrist during the ALA Annual Conference in Washington, D.C., during the IS Program, June 24.
“Through the Miriam Dudley Instruction Librarian Award, we recognize Debra Gilchrist, dean of library and media services for Pierce College District in Washington, for her leadership in advancing instruction through information literacy assessment,” wrote Lisa Hinchliffe, chair of the IS Dudley award committee.
“Debra’s example has inspired instruction librarians throughout North America to ask key questions about student learning and to improve their instruction programs with the results. Her approach to assessment-as-learning is refreshing and offers a manageable process for instructional and programmatic improvement.
“The professional development Debra has provided though the ACRL Immersion Program, an ACRL online course, and her numerous consultancies and speaking engagements has offered assessment tools, ways of thinking like a teacher, and perspectives on student learning to librarians,” said Hinchliffe. “Debra’s work has impacted hundreds of librarians who are improving learning for thousands of students each year.”
Gilchrist has served as an ACRL Institute for Information Literacy Immersion faculty member since 1998, and has been dean of the faculty since 2001. She currently serves as cochair of the ACRL 13th National Conference Virtual Conference Committee, a position she has held since 2005. Gilchrist was chair of the ACRL Appointments Committee from 2001 to 2002, and during that time was also a member of the ACRL Task Force on the Future. She served on the ALA Council as councilor-at-large from 1995 to 2001.
Gilchrist has written extensively on information literacy assessment and is currently editing a volume on assessment for the ACRL Information Literacy series.
Gilchrist has been dean of library and media services of the Pierce College District since 1991. Prior to that, she was assistant professor at the Pacific Lutheran University Library (1987–91), where she was granted tenure in 1990. Gilchrist served as assistant reference librarian/assistant professor at South Dakota State University from 1984 to 1987.
Le named LPSS Marta Lange/CQ Press Award winner
Binh P. Le, associate librarian at Pennsylvania State-Abington, has been named this year’s recipient of the ACRL Law and Political Science Section (LPSS) Marta Lange/CQ Press Award. The award, established in 1996 by LPSS, honors an academic or law librarian who has made distinguished contributions to bibliography and information service in law or political science.CQ Press, sponsor of the award, will present the $1,000 award and plaque during the LPSS Marta Lange/CQ Press Award Reception, June 23.
“Binh was selected for his distinguished career as a political science librarian at Penn State; for his outstanding scholarship including bibliographic work on ‘Vietnam’s Economic Transformation, 1986-2000’ and his research on ‘Asian Gangs’ in the United States; for his service to the profession in LPSS; and for his outstanding work for the Library and Education Assistance Foundation for Vietnam (LEAF), dedicated to improving libraries and librarianship in Vietnam,” said Brian E. Coutts, chair of the Marta Lange Award Committee.
Prior to his current position, Le served as senior assistant librarian/reference librarian at Pennsylvania State-Abington from 1988 to 1998. He was reference and instruction librarian at the Purdue University Undergraduate Library from 1987 to 1988.
Center for the Humanities wins ACRL CJCLS Program Award
ACRL is pleased to announce that the Hagan Foundation Center for the Humanities at Spokane Community College has been chosen to receive the Community and Junior College Libraries Section (CJCLS) EBSCO Community College Learning Resources Program Achievement Award.
A citation and $500, donated by EBSCO Information Services, will be presented to the staff of the Hagan Foundation Center for the Humanities during the CJCLS Awards Breakfast, June 24.
“The Hagan Foundation Center for the Humanities is a nationally recognized, innovative program that places Spokane Community College’s library at the center of educational inquiry, and provides the library with a positive image in the greater Spokane community,” said award committee chair Matt Burrell.
Originally called the Center for the Humanities, it was renamed the Hagan Foundation Center for the Humanities in 2005. Located in the library, the center was created in an effort to integrate liberal arts and humanities across the campus curriculum, and to create a humanities-based model for academic inquiry. Additional goals of the center are to instill critical thinking skills and appreciation for the humanities in SCC students, raise community awareness of the scope and variety of campus programs, and provide positive focus on and visibility for the Library/Learning Resources Center.
ACRL announces RBMS Leab Exhibition award winners
There are seven winners for the Katharine Kyes Leab and Daniel J. Leab American Book Prices Current Exhibition Awards. These awards, funded by an endowment established by Katharine Kyes Leab and Daniel J. Leab, editors of American Book Prices Current and sponsored by the ACRL Rare Books & Manuscripts Section (RBMS), recognize outstanding exhibition catalogs issued by American or Canadian institutions in conjunction with library exhibitions as well as electronic exhibition catalogs of outstanding merit issued within the digital/Web environment.
In Division One (expensive), the cowinner is “‘No Other Appetite:’ Sylvia Plath, Ted Hughes, and the Blood Jet of Poetry,” by Stephen C. Enniss and Karen V. Kukil submitted by the Grolier Club.
“In a deep red binding, this memorable volume brings together two significant collections of 20-century literature,” said Marcia Reed, chair of the RBMS Exhibition Awards committee. “Mirroring the poets’ marriage, the beautifully designed and well-illustrated catalog succeeds admirably in publishing a book that conveys the weight of its subjects’ lives and works in both text and image.”
The next Division One cowinner is “Half-Life: 25 Years of Books” by Barbara Tetenbaum and Triangular Press, submitted by the Multnomah County Public Libraries, John Wilson Special Collections Room in Portland, Oregon.
“An artist’s book with text in both English and German serves as a retrospective catalog to an exhibition with a focus on the artist and her work,” said Reed. “Addressing the world of books and readers energetically and with humor, Tetenbaum transcends her own production and concludes with a stirring contemporary manifesto: “To create books out of passion, to give self-will a form and thus to stimulate the reader’s and observer’s every sense, this is where we share common ground.”
In Division Two (moderately expensive) the winner is the New York Public Library, Dorot Jewish Division for its piece entitled “Letters to Sala: A Young Woman’s Life in Nazi Labor Camps,” by Ann Kirschner.
“Elucidating the biography of Sala Garncarz and the genesis of the archive, this volume tells the story of the young woman’s five years in a Nazi labor camp in Poland,” said Reed. “Illustrations, letters, and related documents from the collection support the somber account of a Holocaust survivor who came to start a new life in New York City.”
In Division Three (inexpensive), the co-winner is “Maxwell did it! Photographing the Atlantic City Boardwalk, 1920s–1950s,” submitted by the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising and Marketing History in the Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library at Duke University.