Gloriana St. Clair named ACRL Academic/Research Librarian of the Year
Contact: Megan Griffin
ACRL Program Coordinator
(312) 280-2514
NEWS
For Immediate Release
January 28, 2009
CHICAGO — Gloriana St. Clair, dean of university libraries at Carnegie Mellon University, is the 2009 Association of College and Research Libraries’ (ACRL) Academic/Research Librarian of the Year. The award, sponsored by YBP Library Services, recognizes an outstanding member of the library profession who has made a significant national or international contribution to academic/research librarianship and library development.
St. Clair will receive a $5,000 award on Thursday, March 12, at the opening keynote session of the ACRL 14th National Conference in Seattle.
“Gloriana St. Clair is deserving of this award on all counts. She epitomizes the Librarian-Leader-Scholar model through her long and notable career as an academic librarian, her contributions to ACRL and other professional organizations and in particular her record of scholarship and scholarly contributions with both national and international influence and impact,” said award committee Chair Robin Wagner, director of the Gettysburg College Library. “St. Clair demonstrates a deep commitment to academic librarianship and has an extraordinary record of scholarship and service to the profession. She is among a handful of people who have been instrumental in reshaping our professional literature, setting high standards for scholarship and writing, while making the literature meaningful and accessible to both researchers and practitioners.”
“In academia, the most prestigious awards are those that our peers accord us. I was blown away when I found out that I had received this incredible recognition, and I thought it was an early April Fool’s joke,” St. Clair said. “Having my accomplishments, which were all achieved through working closely with others, recognized is both deeply humbling and satisfying. “
St. Clair has a distinguished record of service to the profession. She has contributed to the body of scholarship and scholarly communication by serving as editor of three prestigious journals – College & Research Libraries (1990-96), Journal of Academic Librarianship (1996-2000) and Portal: Libraries and the Academy (2000-03). During her tenures as editor, she was responsible for publishing many groundbreaking contributions to the body of scholarly literature in academic and research librarianship. She served as a member of the C&RL, C&RL News and Publications in Librarianship editorial boards, along with the ACRL Publications Committee.
As a writer, her work includes co-authoring “The Library of the Future: The Future of the Library,” published in The Innovative University (2003); “Chaos, Convenience and Catalogers,” in Cataloging and Classification Quarterly (2000); co-authoring “Undergraduate Term Paper Citation Patterns By Discipline and Level of Course,” Collection Management (1990); and co-authoring “Disquieting Dilemmas of Digital Librarian,” published in Technology Enhanced Learning: Opportunities for Change (2002). St. Clair has also authored numerous thought-provoking editorials and provided advice and mentoring on writing, research and publishing to a generation of scholar librarians.
In addition to her work as an author, editor and scholar, St. Clair has served as director of the Universal Library Project since 1999. A broad coalition of libraries and computer scientists in the United States, India and China, the project aims to digitize 1 million scholarly volumes and make them freely available online. St. Clair’s contributions to the project include co-authoring more than $3,5 million in funding grants.
She has contributed to the future of the profession by serving as an adjunct professor in the School of Library and Information Science at the University of Pittsburgh, teaching academic library management. Her experience as an educator also includes teaching in the Carnegie Mellon University Academy for Lifelong Learning and the Department of Management at the University of Texas at San Antonio and serving as an assistant professor in the English Department at the College of Charleston.
Prior to being named dean at Carnegie Mellon, St. Clair served as associate dean for information access services at Penn State University’s Pattee Library from 1990-98, assistant director for technical, automation and administrative services at the Kerr Library at Oregon State University from 1987-90 and head of the Acquisitions Division at Texas A&M University, among other positions in her long and distinguished career.
St. Clair received her B.A in English from the University of Oklahoma in 1962. She earned her M.L.S. from the University of California - Berkeley in 1963, a Ph.D. in Literature from Oklahoma University in 1970 and an M.B.A from the University of Texas – San Antonio in 1980.
The award dates back to 1978, and recent award winners include Peter Hernon (2008); Lizabeth (Betsy) Wilson (2007); Ray English (2006); Ravindra Nath (R. N.) Sharma (2005); Tom Kirk (2004); Ross Atkinson, (2003); Shelley Phipps, (2002) and Larry Hardesty (2001).
For more information regarding the ACRL Academic/Research Librarian of the Year award, or a complete list of past recipients, please visit
http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlawards/acrllibrarian.htm.
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ACRL is a division of the American Library Association, representing 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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