Trudi Jacobson wins 2009 ACRL/IS Miriam Dudley Instruction Librarian Award

Contact: Megan Griffin

ACRL Program Coordinator

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 24, 2009

CHICAGO – Trudi E. Jacobson, head of user education programs at the University at Albany State University of New York, is the winner of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Instruction Section’s (IS) Miriam Dudley Instruction Librarian Award. The award honors Miriam Dudley, whose efforts in the field of information literacy led to the formation of IS. The honor recognizes a librarian who has made a significant contribution to the advancement of instruction in a college or research library environment.

The award is sponsored by Elsevier on behalf of its library and information science program. A check for $1,000 and a plaque will be presented to Jacobson at the 2009 ALA Annual Conference in Chicago, during the IS Program at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, July 12.

“For over twenty years Trudi Jacobson has strengthened and deepened scholarly conversations about information literacy via her many publications, both within and beyond the literature of our librarianship,” wrote Jean Caspers, chair of the IS Dudley Award committee and reference and instruction librarian at Linfield College. “Her generosity in sharing knowledge has extended to presentations and workshops locally, regionally and nationally, again including but not limited to audiences within the library profession, thus spreading the word about information literacy across traditional academic boundaries.Ã‚

“Her scholarship, leadership, service and teaching combine to make Ms. Jacobson a truly worthy recipient of the Miriam Dudley Instruction Librarian Award.”

Jacobson teaches at both the undergraduate and graduate levels and has developed exemplary library instruction programs. She is regularly sought out as a consultant about information literacy issues. She has been an active contributor within ALA since 1980, holding official positions in IS, the ACRL Arts section and the ACRL Information Literacy Advisory Committee.

Jacobson was the recipient of the IS 2005 Publication of the Year Award for “Motivating Students in Information Literacy Classes” (New York:Ã‚ Neal-Schuman, 2004), a book she co-authored with Lijuan Xu. She has published eight additional books, eight book chapters and more than 30 articles in journals ranging from Research Strategies, CR&L and Journal of Academic Librarianship to the American Biology Teacher, College Teaching and Journal of General Education.Ã‚

Jacobson received her M.A. in Liberal Studies from the State University of New York at Albany, where she also earned her M.L.S. in Library Science and her B.A. in Linguistics and Anthropology.

ACRL is a division of the American Library Association (ALA), representing nearly 13,000 academic and research librarians and interested individuals. ACRL is the only individual membership organization in North America that develops programs, products and services to meet the unique needs of academic and research librarians. Its initiatives enable the higher education community to understand the role that academic libraries play in the teaching, learning and research environments.

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