Greenwood Publishing Group Award recipient named

Contact: Cheryl Malden
Program Officer
ALA Governance Office
cmalden@ala.org
(312) 280-3247

NEWS
For Immediate Release
March 5, 2009

 

CHICAGO — The American Library Association (ALA) has named Jean Preer’s Library Ethics, published by Libraries Unlimited, the winner of the 2009 Greenwood Publishing Group Award for the Best Book in Library Literature: an annual award to honor the best book published in library literature.Â

The book may help library professionals in the areas of management principles and practice, understanding and application of new techniques or furthering the education of librarians or other information specialists.  The awardee receives $5,000 and a 24K gold-framed citation, donated by the Greenwood Publishing Group.

The Award committee chose Library Ethics from a large and strong field of nominated books and praised Dr. Preer's comprehensive approach to an issue that pervades every aspect of modern library life; her exhaustive coverage of all aspects of the topic; the enduring relevance of her work; her combination of readability and thorough scholarship; and the fact that this book fills an important lacuna in modern library literature.

Dr. Preer is a professor in the Indiana University School of Library and Information Science-Indianapolis. She is a graduate of Swarthmore College, with an MLS degree from the University of California-Berkeley and a J.D. and a Ph.D. in American Civilization from George Washington University. Before joining the Indiana University faculty in 2002, she taught at the library school of The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. where she also served as associate dean. Her teaching and research interests concern topics related to library science, history and law. She currently teaches Perspectives on Librarianship; Collection Development and Management; and Library Philanthropy.  She received the Indiana University Trustees Teaching Award in 2005 and the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE) Award for Teaching Excellence in 2006. Her essay, “Promoting Citizenship: Librarians Help Get Out the Vote in the 1952 Presidential Election,” won the Justin Winsor Prize awarded by the Library History Round Table of the American Library Association in 2007.

The annual award will be presented at the ALA Annual Conference in Chicago, in July.

Members of the 2009 Greenwood Publishing Group Award committee are: Chair, Michael Gorman, University Librarian Emeritus, California State University, Fresno; June DeWeese, Access Services Librarian, University of Missouri-Columbia; Irene Herold, Dean, Mason Library, Keene State College, N.H.; Lace Keaton, Director, Okefenokee Regional Library System, Waycross Ga.; and, Christie Koontz, Faculty, Florida State University.

For more information on the Greenwood Publishing Group Award and other ALA awards, please visit www.ala.org/ala/awardsgrants/index.cfm.