H.W. Wilson Library Staff Development Grant Award recipient named

CHICAGO — The 13 Things in Blackboard: A Self-Paced Online Learning Professional Development Program at George Mason University Libraries is the 2017 winner of the prestigious H.W. Wilson Library Staff Development Grant. The award is presented annually to a library organization whose application demonstrates greatest merit for a program of staff development designed to further the goals and objectives of the library organization.

George Mason University Libraries developed a program entitled 13 Things in Blackboard: A Self-paced Online Learning Professional Development Program. The self paced program encourages library staff to learn new online teaching techniques and experiment with technology that will be used to support students taking online classes. The jury was impressed with the project for several reasons. The program promises to “directly, and positively, impact students taking online courses.” The jury mentioned that the detailed curriculum and alignment of program with the George Mason’s strategic plan is “impressive.” The program included a very effective evaluation plan. We thought that this program would especially benefit the online end users. The jury thought that the lessons and material would also be useful for instruction that was designed for flipped classrooms. Providing the content online seemed to be particularly beneficial to the library staff who would be using it.

Members of the 2017 H.W. Wilson Library Staff Development Grant jury were Shirley Biladeau, Idaho Commission for Libraries; Elizabeth Bruch, Southern Alamance High School; Rochelle Logan, Rochelle Logan Consulting; Meredith Steiner, San Francisco Public Library; and Annie Zeidman-Karpinski, Chair, University of Oregon.

The H.W. Wilson Library Staff Development Grant will be presented at the ALA Award Ceremony and Reception on Sunday, June 25 at the ALA Annual Conference in Chicago.

The deadline for submission of applications for the 2018 Gale Cengage Financial Development Award is Dec. 1, 2017.

Guidelines and forms are available on the ALA website.