Ken Middleton wins 2009 ACRL WSS Significant Achievement Award

Contact: Megan Griffin

ACRL Program Coordinator

NEWS

For Immediate Release

February 24, 2009

CHICAGO – Ken Middleton, user services librarian at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU), is the winner of the 2009 Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Women’s Studies Section (WSS) Award for Significant Achievement in Woman’s Studies Librarianship. The award, sponsored by Routledge/ Taylor & Francis Group, honors a significant or one-time contribution to women’s studies librarianship.

Middleton will receive a $1,000 award and plaque during the WSS program at 8 a.m. on Monday, July 13, at the 2009 ALA Annual Conference in Chicago.

“Ken’s latest impressive achievement in women’s studies librarianship is his database Discovering American Women’s History Online, which brings together 405 digital collections of primary sources in women’s history in a format that has multiple browse and search options,” said Jennifer Gilley, chair of the WSS award committee and head librarian at Penn State University’s Elisabeth S. Blissell Library. “Each collection is annotated and assigned subject headings to make it more accessible to women’s studies researchers. The awards committee predicts widespread use for this amazing resource.”

Discovering American Women’s History Online is available atÃ‚
http://library.mtsu.edu/digitalprojects/womenshistory.php.

Ken Middleton received his M.L.S. in 1992 from the University of Tennessee and has been a user services librarian at MTSU since 1993. He developed a strong interest in women's history while completing his M.A. in history at MTSU. He has been developing women’s history Web sites since 1997. Two of these sites, "American Women's History: A Research Guide" and "American Women Through Time," have been "highly recommended" in Choice.

In addition to teaching bibliographic instruction sessions for women's history courses, Middleton has reviewed women’s history databases and reference books for American Reference Books Annual.

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.Ã‚ 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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