Van Orden receives ALSC Distinguished Service Award
Contact: Meredith Parets
312-280-2166
mparets@ala.org
For Immediate Release
January 2002
Van Orden receives ALSC Distinguished Service Award
The Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), is proud to announce that Dr. Phyllis J. Van Orden, a past ALSC president, is the 2002 recipient of the ALSC Distinguished Service Award.
The award honors an individual ALSC member who has made significant contributions to library service to children and to ALSC. The announcement was made at the ALSC Board of Directors meeting during the ALA Midwinter Meeting in New Orleans.
Van Orden will receive a monetary award of $1,000, a silver pin and be honored at the ALSC membership meeting during the 2002 ALA Annual Conference in Atlanta.
For more than 35 years, Dr. Van Orden has provided leadership to ALSC and guidance to younger librarians entering the profession and the association. She has served as a leader in ALA, ALSC and the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE) and, as author of "Selecting Books for the Elementary School Library Media Center" (Neal-Schuman, 2000), provided countless librarians with tools to build strong library collections for young people.
"It was the longevity, depth and extensive reach of Dr. Van Orden's contributions to children's library service that made her the unanimous choice for this award," said Jeanette Larson, award committee chair. "Dr. Van Orden has made a difference to many people, to the profession, and to the Association for Library Service to Children."
Van Orden has been a respected member of the faculty at several schools of librarianship, including dean of the library schools at Wayne State University and the University of Washington, Seattle. She was named a Lillian Bradshaw Scholar at Texas Woman's University and was the recipient of the Blackwell North America Scholarship Award for her work,
The Collection Program in Elementary and Middle Schools: Concepts, Practices and Information Source (Libraries Unlimited, 2001, co-authored by Kay Bishop).
Members of the 2002 Distinguished Service Award Committee are: Jeanette Larson, chair, Austin (Texas) Public Library; Dudley B. Carlson, Portola Valley, Calif.; Janice M. Del Negro, The Center for Children's Books, Champaign, Ill.; Ruth I. Gordon, Critical Reviewing, Unlimited, Cloverdale, Calif.; and William Morris, HarperCollins Children's Books, New York.