Bluh recipient of Ross Atkinson Award

CHICAGO - The Association of Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS) is pleased to announce that Pamela Bluh, associate director for technical services and administration at the Thurgood Marshall Law Library of the University of Maryland, is to be awarded the division’s Ross Atkinson Lifetime Achievement Award for 2012. The award will be presented to Ms. Bluh at the annual conference of the American Library Association to be held at 5:30 p.m. Sunday, June24 in Anaheim, Calif. Bluh will receive a citation and an award of $3,000 generously sponsored by EBSCO.

Pamela Bluh has a long and distinguished record of service to ALCTS and to other professional organizations. She served as president of ALCTS in 2007/2008, as editor of the highly successful ALCTS Papers on Library Technical Services and Collections from 2003-2006, as chair of the Fundraising Committee from 2000-2004 and in other roles going back three decades. During her stint as chair of the Fundraising Committee she collaborated with publishers and vendors to achieve common goals, such as funding a library support staff travel grant. Most recently, she has chaired the Continuing Education Committee, developing events both for audiences at conferences and as webinars—a model that proved very successful and contributed to the financial health of the division. Currently Pamela is editing the first e-book to be published by ALCTS: "The Institutional Repository: Benefits and Challenges."

While Pamela has numerous publications and presentations to her credit, one area of particular genius for her has been in programming. Starting in 2003, she perfected a hugely successful program model—the Midwinter symposium, focusing on critical and cutting edge issues. For 2012, she and her co-planners will experiment with a series of webinars instead of the in-person symposium. Through this format, she hopes to reach many librarians and support staff that are unable to travel to conferences.

Ms. Bluh has previously been recognized with two ALCTS Presidential Citations in 2004 and 2010 and she was the 2004 recipient of the Ulrich’s Award for Serials Librarianship.

The letter of nomination and letters of support for Ms. Bluh emphasized that in addition to her formal contributions to the profession and to ALCTS, that she had made a profound impact by mentoring librarians new to the division. One letter of support stated, “She has coached me in the intricacies of our organization and steered me…toward a profound understanding of the importance of the division’s work in the larger context of 21^st century librarianship. Pamela’s vision and deep belief in the role of librarians and professional associations in the fast-paced world of information and access delivery are unparalleled.”

ALCTS is a division of the American Library Association.