Harrassowitz Leadership in Library Acquisitions Award to Lisa German

CHICAGO — The Acquisitions Section of the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS) has selected Lisa German, associate dean for Collections, Information and Access Services at Pennsylvania State University Libraries, to receive the 2012 Harrassowitz Leadership in Library Acquisitions Award.  The award will be presented on Sunday, June 24, at the ALCTS Awards Ceremony during the 2012 American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference in Anaheim, Calif.

The Harrassowitz Leadership in Library Acquisitions Award, sponsored annually by Harrassowitz and named in honor of Dr. Knut Dorn, before his 2011 retirement the longtime senior managing partner at Harrassowitz, is given to a librarian in recognition of outstanding leadership and other contributions in the field of acquisitions and includes a $1,500 monetary award. 

German has been involved in acquisitions-related positions for almost 20 years in progressively important roles.  Beginning her career at Wright State University as assistant head of acquisitions, German’s career trajectory has included positions at the University of Illinois Library at Urbana-Champaign and Penn State, the latest of which is associate dean for collections, information and access services, which includes oversight of acquisitions operations and much else.

German’s commitment to the profession has been evident through her many years of service to ALCTS, where she has served at both the section and division level for many years.  At the section level she served on and chaired a variety of committees, as well as serving as a member at large to the Executive Board, all leading to her service as chair of the acquisitions section in 2004/2005.  At the division level, German served on the Budget & Finance, Planning, Nominating and Fundraising Committees and also worked on two preconference symposia planning committees.

In the area of writing and research, German has an impressive list of publications to her credit, as well as service on the editorial board of ACQNET-L for several years and as guest editor for Against the Grain.  She has presented at many professional conferences, including the Virginia Library Association, the Charleston Conference and the Timberline Conference, to name but a few.

German has been active in educating acquisitions professionals, serving on the Business of Acquisitions Preconference as both organizer and instructor.  Her leadership on both her own campus and at a national level has already been recognized with several awards, including the ALCTS Esther J. Piercy Award.  German is a proven and recognized leader in our field and rightfully joins the stellar list of recipients of this prestigious award.

The Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS) is the national association for information providers who work in collections and technical services, such as acquisitions, cataloging, collection development, preservation and continuing resources in digital and print formats.

ALCTS is a division of the American Library Association.