HomeJohn E Buschman named Futas winner

Contact: Cheryl Malden
Program Officer
312-280-3247
cmalden@ala.org

For Immediate Release
March 19, 2004

John E. Buschman named Futas winner

CHICAGO - John E. Buschman is the 2004 recipient of the American Library Association (ALA) Elizabeth Futas Catalyst for Change Award. The $1,000 award and citation, donated by the Elizabeth Futas Memorial Fund, recognizes and honors a librarian who invests time and talent to make positive changes in the profession of librarianship.

"Committee members were impressed by Buschman's willingness to challenge the common wisdom, and to ask the hard questions about the library and information science profession," Gloria J. Coles award chair.

Buschman is department chair and collection development librarian at Rider University in Lawrenceville, New Jersey.  He was nominated by Kathleen de la Peña McCook, professor at University of Southern Florida, Tampa and 2003 Beta Phi Mu winner said, "Buschman exemplifies the characteristics delineated in the Catalyst for Change criteria.  He has invested thousands of hours in time and talent to examine the philosophical and ethical foundations of librarianship.  He has worked in a sustained fashion for change in the American Library Association and he has inspired a generation of librarians to ask hard questions about the ethics of our professional practice."

Lincoln Cushing the electronic outreach librarian at the Institute of Industrial Relations at UC Berkeley, Calif., supported Buschman's nomination and stated "John has left his indelible mark on the profession through a lifetime of scholarship, writing and public speaking.  He has consistently and rigorously pursued numerous facets of the library community.  Intellectual freedom, digital divide, self-censorship, and collective amnesia have all been the targets of John's piercing intellect.  He relentlessly challenges the easy and fashionable answers to difficult questions.  His most recent work, Dismantling the Public Sphere, is perhaps the culmination of this intellectual trajectory, and others significant insights into major policy issues confronting our profession."

The Elizabeth Futas Catalyst for Change Award will be presented Tuesday, June 29, during the ALA Annual Conference in Orlando, Fla.