ACRL honors the 2009 award winners, Part 2: A recognition of professional achievement

C&RL News, May 2009
Vol. 70, No. 5

by Megan Griffin

Kenley Neufeld wins CJCLS Leadership Award
Kenley Neufeld, library director at Santa Barbara City College, is winner of the Community and Junior College Libraries Section (CJCLS) EBSCO Community College Learning Resources Leadership Award. The award honors significant achievement in advocacy of learning resources, as well as leadership in professional organizations that support the missions of community, junior, and technical colleges.

The $500 award and plaque, donated by EBSCO Information Services, will be presented to Neufeld at the ALA Annual Conference in Chicago during the CJCLS dinner.

Photograph by
Cindi Trainor

“Kenley Neufeld’s leadership and technology innovations have benefited Santa Barbara City College and the community at-large,” said José Aguiñaga, CJCLS award committee chair and librarian at Glendale Community College. “Kenley is an outstanding librarian role model that all should emulate in their daily library interactions.”

Neufeld’s nominators praised his significant achievements in the advocacy of library programs and services and noted that since his arrival at Santa Barbara City College in 2005, many dramatic and positive changes in the content of the library programs and in the atmosphere of the facility have occurred. They attribute these changes to his energy, insight, and effort.

Neufeld has served on numerous ACRL committees, including a term as CJCLS chair in (2007–08).

Diana Fitzwater wins CJCLS Program Award
Diana Fitzwater, reference librarian at the College of DuPage, is the recipient of the Community and Junior College Libraries Section (CJCLS) EBSCO Community College Learning Resources Program Achievement Award.

The $500 award and plaque, donated by EBSCO Information Services, will be presented to Fitzwater during the CJCLS dinner at the ALA Annual Conference.

“Diana Fitzwater’s initiative to coordinate the information literacy program at the College of DuPage is quite worthy of this award,” said award committee chair José Aguiñaga, librarian at the Glendale Community College. “What she has achieved since 1982 at her institution is outstanding. Her

involvement with embedding information literacy as a general education competency within the College of DuPage curriculum demonstrates her significant programmatic contribution to the college, on behalf of the library.”

Fitzwater was praised for single-handedly taking on the role of information literacy expert on campus, not only because she felt the library contributed to the educational mission of the institution, but also because she believes in the potential of all community college students and has dedicated her career to their success.

Fritts named DLS Haworth Press Distance Learning Librarian Conference Sponsorship Award winner
Jack E. Fritts Jr., director of library services at Benedictine University, has been named the recipient of the Distance Learning Section (DLS) Haworth Press Distance Learning Librarian Conference Sponsorship Award. This annual award, sponsored by Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group, honors an ACRL member working in the field of, or contributing to the success of, distance learning librarianship or related library service in higher education.

Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group will present the $1,200 award and plaque during the DLS discussion group meeting at the ALA Annual Conference.

“The committee chose Jack Fritts as this year’s award recipient due to his impressive record of accomplishment through more than 20 years of service to distance learners,” said Jerilyn Marshall, chair of the DLS award committee and head of the Reference and Instructional Services Department at the University of Northern Iowa’s Rod Library. “He has served in a variety of roles throughout his career: as a librarian, director, educator, technologist, and consultant. His mentoring skills and his interest in seeing distance learning librarians and librarianship develop and succeed were mentioned several times in the nomination letters we received.

“Jack has long been involved as an active participant in the Distance Learning Section of ACRL and its predecessors,” Marshall continued. “Most recently he was one of the leaders in the successful effort to develop ACRL’s new ‘Standards for Distance Learning Library Services.’”

Prior to becoming director of library services at Benedictine University in 2002, Fritts was executive director of the Southeastern Wisconsin Information Technology Exchange (SWITCH) from 1997 to 2002. He also worked at the National-Louis University Library in Evanston, Illinois, where he served at assistant university librarian for library technology (1996–97), assistant university librarian for public services and automation (1992–96), coordinator of public services (1990–92), and public services librarian and coordinator of interlibrary loan (1988–90).

Fritts has served as a consultant for the Technology Continuum, where he conducts workshops to train teachers on how to use the Web collaboratively. He also worked with the North Suburban Library System as a trainer during his tenure at National-Louis University and taught adult education courses at National-Louis University, Rosary College, and Oakton Community College.

Gary Lare named EBSS Distinguished Librarian
Gary Lare, former head of the curriculum resources center at the University of Cincinnati, is the recipient of the Education and Behavioral Sciences Section (EBSS) Distinguished Education and Behavioral Sciences Librarian Award. This award honors a distinguished academic librarian who has made an outstanding contribution as an education and/or behavioral sciences librarian through accomplishments and service to the profession.

A prize of $1,500, donated by John Wiley and Sons, Inc., will be presented to Lare during the EBSS Program at the ALA Annual Conference.

“Dr. Gary Lare has had a long history of service to ALA, ACRL, and the library profession,” said award committee chair Paula McMillen, education librarian at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. “The committee was particularly impressed with his generous mentorship of librarians new to the field.”

Lare cochaired the EBSS committee that developed the first set of ALA guidelines for curriculum materials centers in academic libraries and several significant publications followed, including his books Acquiring and Organizing Curriculum Materials: A Guide and Directory of Resources, which went to a second edition in 2004, and Social Studies Teaching Activities Book: An Annotated Resource Guide, which came out in 2006.

“Dr. Lare also promoted his specialty in education librarianship through his job,” said McMillen. “He developed three education facilities, including a Curriculum Materials Center (CMC), at Oral Roberts University, as well as a CMC and an education library at the University of Cincinnati. Letters of support to recognize a lifetime of service to the field came from former winners of this award and several former chairs of the ACRL Education and Behavioral Sciences Section chairs, attesting to his reputation and impact.”

Lare retired as head of the curriculum resources center at the University of Cincinnati in 2007, after 32 years in that position. He previously served as assistant professor and head of the curriculum media center at Oral Roberts University (1971–75).

Rice Database receives STS Oberly Award
The International Rice Research Institute’s Rice Database has been selected as the recipient of the Science and Technology Section (STS) Oberly Award for Bibliography in the Agricultural or Natural Sciences. The cash award and plaque will be presented at the ALA Annual Conference.

Formerly known as the Rice Bibliography, the Rice Database is a comprehensive bibliography of technical rice literature covering all aspects of rice research, produced by scientists from around the world. It is available online at ricelib.irri.cgiar.org:81/screens/opacmenu.html.

“The Rice Database is a highly unique, but desperately needed, resource for both developing and developed countries,” said award committee cochairs Marianne Stowell Bracke and Martin Kesselman.

The Oberly Award was established in 1923 in memory of Eunice Rockwood Oberly, librarian of the Bureau of Plant Industry, United States Department of Agriculture, from 1908 to 1921. Oberly was the Bureau of Plant Industry’s representative to the Congressional Joint Commission on Reclassification of Government Employees and was instrumental in gaining a fairer recognition of library activities.

This biennial award is given in odd-numbered years for the best English-language bibliography in the field of agriculture or a related science.

IS presents Ilene F. Rockman Publication of the Year Award
“A Practical Guide to Information Literacy Assessment for Academic Librarians” has been chosen as the winner of the ACRL Instruction Section (IS) Ilene F. Rockman Publication of the Year Award.

Written by Kent State University librarians—Carolyn Radcliff, professor and reference and instruction librarian; Mary Lee Jensen, former head of instructional services; Joseph A. Salem Jr., associate professor and head of reference and government information services; Kenneth J. Burhanna, assistant professor and head of instructional services; and Julie A. Gedeon, assistant professor and coordinator of assessment—the guide provides information on the evaluation of both students and library instruction programs.

The annual award honors Ilene F. Rockman’s professional contributions to academic librarianship in the area of information literacy by recognizing an outstanding publication related to instruction in a library environment published in the preceding two years. Emerald Group Publishing Limited, sponsor of the award, will present the $3,000 award and plaque during at the IS program at the ALA Annual Conference.

“‘A Practical Guide to Information Literacy Assessment for Academic Librarians’ provides a comprehensive treatment of assessment tools for instruction, including their costs and benefits, and addresses how each tool can be applied within academic libraries,” said Susan Beck, IS awards committee cochair and collection development coordinator at the New Mexico State University Library. “This book is innovative in the extent of its coverage, original in its accessibility to librarians at all levels of institution and experience, and timely in its response to the nation-wide emphasis on outcomes assessment in higher education.”

         
IS Ilene Rockman Publication of the Year Award    
                                       winners Joseph A. Salem Jr., Carolyn Radcliff,                                                    
                                   Julie A. Gedeon, and Kenneth J. Burhanna (Kent                                               
State University librarians).


          
                                                                 Mary Lee Jensen                                                        

World War II Poster Project wins IS Innovation award
The Bucknell University World War II Poster Project, developed by Abby Clobridge, librarian and digital initiatives group leader, and David Willson Del Testa, assistant professor of history, at Bucknell University, has been chosen to receive the Instruction Section (IS) Innovation award. Sponsored by Lexis-Nexis, the annual award recognizes a project that demonstrates creative, innovative, or unique approaches to information literacy instruction or programming.

A prize of $3,000 and a plaque will be presented to Clobridge and Del Testa during the IS program at the ALA Annual Conference.

“The IS Awards Committee chose the Bucknell University World War II Poster Project because of its creative and collaborative approach to research, information literacy, and technological skills within the context of an introductory history course and a special collection,” said award committee cochair Emily Rogers, assistant professor and reference librarian at Valdosta State University.

“Students worked hands-on with original World War II-era posters from the university’s archives to develop proficiency at describing, researching, analyzing, digitizing, and cataloging them,” said Rogers. “This project helped students to understand the importance of arranging and describing information, to develop richer understanding of visual representations of history, and to appreciate collaboration among teaching and library faculty and staff. In the words of Diane Graves, university librarian at Trinity University, ‘Not only did the project introduce students to research tools and methods, it also brought them face to face with the reasons we do these things: to preserve and describe materials for the historical record—and for generations to come.’”

In an effort to find creative ways to develop students’ research, information literacy, and technology skills within the context of a course, Del Testa and Clobridge developed the World War II Poster Project as a six-week learning module embedded in an introductory history course, History 100: Thinking about History, the focus of which for this iteration was “World War II.” For the culmination of this project, students wrote papers and built a small, publicly available repository of digital images of the posters and notes about their research. The best student papers are included in a digital library (www.paperandpixels.org).

The World War II Poster Project has led to the development of two distinct pedagogical models, both of which can be adapted by library staff at other institutions, independent of the posters themselves.

While developing the unit, Clobridge and Del Testa mapped the unit’s instructional activities to the ACRL information literacy standards and the regional accreditation standards for information literacy as put forth by the Middle States’ Commission on Higher Education.

Sara Marcus wins Samuel Lazerow Fellowship
Sara Marcus, electronic resource/Web librarian at Queensborough Community College, has been selected to receive the Samuel Lazerow Fellowship for Research in Technical Services or Acquisitions. Marcus was selected for her research project on the change of terms and terminology over several editions of the Sears List of Subject Headings.

Sponsored by Thomson Reuters, the $1,000 award fosters advances in collection development and technical services by providing fellowships to librarians for travel or writing in those fields. The award and a plaque will be presented during the ACRL President’s Program at the ALA Annual Conference.

“While similar research has been done on the terminology used in LCSH, such as that of Sanford Berman, there has been very little to no research done on the terminology used in Sears,” said Jacqueline Samples, chair of the selection committee and continuing and electronic resources librarian at North Carolina State University. “This study should have broad appeal in the cataloging and educational communities.”

Lynne M. Rudasill named Marta Lange/CQ Press Award winner
Lynne M. Rudasill, associate professor of library administration and global studies librarian at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), has been named the recipient of the 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 ALA Annual Conference.

“As the first and only global studies librarian at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Lynne has made a number of contributions to the library profession through articles published in books, peer reviewed and general academic library journals, and through a host of presentations both at home and abroad,” said Leslie Homzie, chair of the award committee and senior reference librarian at Boston College. “Through her Web site created for the Global Studies Library at UIUC, she continues to engage users in international studies.”

Rudasill’s research interests include the exploration of human-computer interaction through Web page design in order to facilitate access to library resources. She is currently researching the effects of government policies on the informational aspects and resources of nongovernmental organizations.

In addition to her position as global studies librarian, Rudasill serves as half-time subject specialist for political science and speech communication in the Education and Social Science Library at UIUC, where her duties include collection development, instruction, and reference. She previously worked as assistant education and social science librarian and reference coordinator at UIUC (1998–2003), where she also served as assistant librarian for instruction and educational technology (1997–98), and was reference/instructional services librarian at Eureka College (1991–97).

Gordon Bruce Anderson named WESS Coutts Nijhoff International West European Specialist Study Grant winner
Gordon Bruce Anderson, coordinator for arts, humanities, and area studies collections and librarian for Scandinavian and Slavic studies at the University of Minnesota, has been selected to receive the Western European Studies Section (WESS) Coutts Nijhoff International West European Specialist Study Grant.

Sponsored by Coutts Information Services, the grant provides $3,000 to support a trip to Europe. 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. Anderson will receive his award check at the WESS general membership meeting during the ALA Annual Conference.

After consulting with scholars and librarians in Scandinavian-American history and bibliography, Anderson will work toward the completion of a long-standing project, the Svenskamerikanska Bibliografi [Swedish American Bibliography]. Known as the SWAM, this open access database, searchable via the Swedish Royal Library’s LIBRIS national union catalog, is a catalog of chiefly U.S. and Canadian imprints published primarily in Swedish over the past 175 years. An expanded online Swedish American Bibliography, and the accompanying digitally accessible research collection of Swedish American imprints, will serve a much broader audience and be a valuable, open resource for scholars, writers, and researchers of this important chapter in America’s immigration history and culture.

“Anderson’s excellent proposal to bring to term a valuable project touching on nearly all aspects of Scandinavian studies, and nearing completion at a juncture in which time is of the essence, is highly worthy of support,” said award committee chair Sarah Wenzel, bibliographer for Romance and English literatures at the University of Chicago.

Linda Krikos receives WSS Career Achievement Award
Linda Krikos, faculty emeritus at Ohio State University Libraries, has been selected as the Women’s Studies Section (WSS) Career Achievement Award. The award, sponsored by Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc., honors significant long-standing contributions to women’s studies in the field of librarianship over the course of a career.
A cash prize of $1,000 and a plaque will be presented to Krikos during the WSS Program at the ALA Annual Conference.

“In addition to leading one of the nation’s finest women’s studies libraries from 1990–2007, Linda conducted and published research that made it possible for other women’s studies librarians to do their jobs effectively,” said Jennifer Gilley, chair of the WSS award committee and head librarian at Penn State University’s Elisabeth S. Blissell Library. “She reviewed the major women’s studies periodical indexes, advocated for women’s studies bibliographic instruction, and ultimately coedited the third edition of Women’s Studies: A Recommended Bibliography as well as writing several of its chapters. Linda is an active and devoted member of WSS and a leader in the field of women’s studies librarianship, both in her practice and her research.”

Ken Middleton wins WSS Significant Achievement Award
Ken Middleton, user services librarian at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU), is the winner of the Women’s Studies Section (WSS) Award for Significant Achievement in Woman’s Studies Librarianship. The award, sponsored by Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group, honors a significant or one-time contribution to women’s studies librarianship.
Middleton will receive a $1,000 award and plaque during the WSS program at the ALA Annual Conference.

“Ken’s latest impressive achievement in women’s studies librarianship is his database Discovering American Women’s History Online, which brings together 405 digital collections of primary sources in women’s history in a format that has multiple browse and search options,” said Jennifer Gilley, chair of the WSS award committee and head librarian at Penn State University’s Elisabeth S. Blissell Library. “Each collection is annotated and assigned subject headings to make it more accessible to women’s studies researchers. The award committee predicts widespread use for this amazing resource.”

Discovering American Women’s History Online is available at library.mtsu.edu/digitalprojects/womenshistory.php.
Middleton has been a user services librarian at MTSU since 1993. He developed a strong interest in women’s history while completing his M.A. in history at MTSU. He has been developing women’s history Web sites since 1997. Two of these sites, “American Women’s History: A Research Guide” and “American Women Through Time,” have been “highly recommended” in Choice.

In addition to teaching bibliographic instruction sessions for women’s history courses, Middleton has reviewed women’s history databases and reference books for American Reference Books Annual.

Megan Griffin is ACRL program coordinator, e-mail: mgriffin@ala.org