Marilyn Irwin named ASCLA Service Award recipient

Contact: Eileen Hardy


Marketing Specialist


312-280-4398


ehardy@ala.org
For Immediate Release:


March 10, 2005

Marilyn Irwin named ASCLA Service Award recipient

CHICAGO — Marilyn Irwin, director, Center for Disability Information and Referral, Indiana Institute on Disability and Community and associate professor, School of Library and Information Science, Indiana University, Indianapolis, (Ind.), is the 2005 recipient of the Association of Specialized and Cooperative Library Agencies (ASCLA) Service Award.

The Service Award is a citation presented by ASCLA, a division of the American Library Association (ALA), to recognize an ASCLA personal member for sustained leadership and exceptional service through participation in activities that have enhanced the stature, reputation and overall strength of ASCLA, as well as representation of ALA.

“Dr. Marilyn Irwin has been a tireless advocate for making information accessible to people with disabilities and is a national leader in service to people with disabilities,” stated Barratt Wilkins, ASCLA award committee chair. “Her service has been exemplary to the Association of Specialized and Cooperative Library Agencies and is to be commended.”

Wilkins added, “Dr. Irwin has served ASCLA as division councilor on the governing Council of the American Library Association, as chair of the Library Service to Developmentally Disabled Persons Membership Activity Group, and as chair of the Subcommittee to Develop Guidelines for Library Service to People with Mental Retardation. In 2004, she introduced and helped pass a resolution through Council requiring ALA to employ only accessible information technology.”

The award will be presented June 26, 2005, from 8:30 to 10 a.m., at the ASCLA President’s Program and Award Ceremony, “Advocacy Is Not Enough – Using Evidence-Based Outcome Measures to Demonstrate Library Impact,” during the ALA Annual Conference in Chicago.