Kathleen de la Peña Mc Cook Receives the 2019 Joseph W. Lippincott Award

CHICAGO – Dr. Kathleen de la Peña McCook is the winner of the 2019 Joseph W. Lippincott Award. This award is sponsored by Joseph W. Lippincott III and presented by the American Library Association for distinguished service to the profession of librarianship.

“The jury for the 2019 Joseph W. Lippincott Award is delighted to honor Dr. McCook,” said jury chair Patricia Glass Schuman, past-president of ALA and former President and cofounder of Neal- Schuman Publishers.

“She is passionate, visionary activist and advocate for equity, diversity, dedication to the core value of social justice and service for all populations. Her involvement in state and local library advocacy, in higher education and policy groups outside the library profession, in library education, and in library service to labor is prodigious. Her publishing, writing and lecturing is surely unparalleled in the profession.”

Various letters of support called Dr. Mc Cook “an extraordinary mentor and role model to countless students,” “visionary,” “inspirational,” “selfless,” “a risk taker, a political force, a fighter in the trenches.” 0ne writer dubbed her “the People’s Librarian” because of her focus on the “ library’s user community and society at-large, and students (librarians, faculty and scholars in training).”

Dr McCook is a Distinguished University Professor at the University of South Florida School of Information. She recently passed the test for the FCC amateur radio license and her call sign is KN4IJM.

The 2019 Joseph W. Lippincott Award will be presented at the ALA Awards Ceremony on June 23, during the ALA Annual Conference in Washington DC.

In addition to Chair Schuman, the members of the 2018 Joseph W. Lippincott Award jury are: Darcell Graham, Baltimore MD; Jay Johnston, Farmington, CT; Robert Newlen, Arlington, VA; and Ann Symons, Portland, OR.

The deadline for submission of applications for the 2020 Joseph W. Lippincott Award is Feb. 1, 2020.

Guidelines and application forms are available on the ALA website.