ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

ACRL award winners, 1989

ACRL opportunities and honors for members.

AiCRLis pleased to announce the recipients of the 1989 ACRL awards. These winners were selected by separate award juries and will be honored at the ALA Annual Conference in Dallas. The Institute for Scientific Information Fellowships—the Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship and the Samuel Lazerow Fellowship for Research in Acquisitions or Technical Services—and the K.G. Saur Award for Best College and Research Libraries Article will be presented at the ACRL President’s Program in Dallas, Monday, June 26, beginning at 2:00 p.m. The ACRL Academic or Research Librarian of the Year Award, sponsored by Baker & Taylor, will be presented at a special reception immediately following the ACRL President’s Program at approximately 5:00 p.m. Please join us in honoring these outstanding individuals.

The deadline for most of the 1990 awards is December 1, 1989. Information about nominations and applications for the 1990 awards are available from Mary Ellen Davis, ACRL Program Officer, ACRL/ALA, 50 East Huron, Chicago, IL 60611, (800) 545-2433; in Illinois, (800) 545-2444; in Canada, (800) 545-2455; or (312) 944-6780, x287.

Academic or Research Librarian of the Year Award

John P. McGowan, university librarian at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, has been chosen to receive the $3,000 Academic or Research Librarian of the Year Award. McGowan will receive the award immediately following the

ACRL President’s Program at 5:00 p.m. on Monday, June 26, at a reception in his honor during the ALA Annual Conference in Dallas. ACRL President Joseph A. Boissé will present the cash award and citation, which are donated by the Baker & Taylor Company.

The award is given annually to recognize an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to academic or research librarianship and library development. In naming McGowan to receive the award, Barry B. Baker, assistant director for technical services at the University of Georgia Libraries, and chair of the award jury, said, “John P. McGowan is truly a pioneer of library automation. Through his vision of library automation and his understanding of the possibilities afforded libraries by integrated library systems, John McGowan has had significant influence on developing online library systems.”

McGowan has long been recognized for his vision in developing the Northwestern Online Total Integrated System (NOTIS) in the late 1960s. The NOTIS system, which has evolved into Notis Systems, Inc., a software development and marketing firm and wholly owned subsidiary of Northwestern University, has been selected and installed by over 100 libraries in the United States.

Appointed university librarian at Northwestern in 1971, McGowan was named Northwestern’s first recipient of the endowed Charles Deering McCormick Distinguished Chair of Research Librarianship. Speaking on the occasion commemorating the endowment of this chair and the naming of McGowan as the first recipient, Beverly P. Lynch, university librarian at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said, “The impact Northwestern’s NOTIS has had and will have for the rest of the century on research and scholarship is incalculable. Its most obvious impact has been, and will be on library operations. Its long-term impact on scholars includes changing the way scholars identify, locate, and use library materials as well as extending access to a universe of resources beyond a campus. The system, built in the environment John McGowan created and nurtured, will change the way the business of the academy—teaching, research, and service—is conducted.”

As well as his development of NOTIS, McGowan’s impact on organizations such as the Research Libraries Group, the Midwest Region Library Network (MIDLNET), the Association of Research Libraries, and the Council on Library Resources are recognized in the award citation. “John McGowan is modest about his many accomplishments, but through his quest for excellence, and his concern for professional development, he has had and continues to have significant influence on the careers of many librarians.”

McGowan’s career as a librarian spans over 35 years. He received his B.A. in English from Hunter College and earned his MLS from Columbia University. He joined the library staff of New York University in 1951 where he studied for a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering, completed in 1966.

Recipients of the award since its inception in 1978 have been Keyes D. Metcalf and Robert D. Downs (1978); Henriette D. Avram and Frederick G. Kilgour (1979); Evan I. Farber (1980); Beverly P. Lynch (1981); William Budington (1982); Richard M. Dougherty (1983); Richard D. Johnson (1984); Jessie Carney Smith (1985); Margaret Beckman (1986); Duane Webster (1987); and Edward G. Holley (1988).

Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship

Kenneth D. Crews, candidate at the UCLA Graduate School of Library and Information Science, has been chosen to receive the Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship. The award, $1,000 and a plaque, is donated by the Institute for Scientific Information and will be presented at the ACRL President’s Program in Dallas.

Kenneth D. Crews

Crews’s proposed dissertation is entitled, “Copyright Policies at American Research Universities: Balancing Information Needs and Legal Limits.” According to Stanton Biddle,

City University of New York, and chair of the award committee, “Crews has identified a crucial dilemma of very wide interest to the membership of ACRL, and the American Library Association— copyright infringement liability and the counterbalancing responsibility for providing maximum access to information. The question is especially important in light of recent advances in computerization of information resources, telefacsimile transmission, and electronic publishing. The critical analysis resulting from his research will document how existing policies address these conflicting purposes, and provide a theoretical construct for policy development.

“Crews has been a member of the State Bar of California and a practicing attorney since 1980. He is the author of several articles, books, and other publications on various aspects of law and librarianship, including copyright issues. He therefore brings to the dissertation a unique background of legal analysis with a library and information science perspective, together with a demonstrated ability to complete and publish substantial research.”

Crews received a B.A. with honors in history from Northwestern University in 1977, a J.D. in 1980 from Washington University School of Law, an MLS from UCLA in 1987 and is now completing his Ph.D. from UCLA. He served as executive director and co-founder of the Los Angeles Venture Association, a non-profit business league (1984-1985); and has served as member, chair, and Advisory Board member of the State Bar of California’s Committee on the History of Law in California since 1983. He has written several books and articles including: Corwins Constitution: Essays and Insights of Edward St. Corwin (Greenwood Press, 1986) and ARL SPEC Kit #138, University Copyright Policies.

The fellowship is presented annually to a doctoral student in the field of academic librarianship whose research indicates originality, creativity and interest in scholarship. Dissertation proposals previously funded by this fellowship have included: “The 1965-75 Faculty Status Movement as Professionalization Effort with Social Movement Characteristics” (Gemma DeVinney, 1986); “The Title Page as the Source of Information for Bibliographic Description” (LingHweyJeng, 1987); and “Managerial Motivation and Career Aspirations of Library/Information Students Aspiring to Academic Library Information Specialists” (Sarla Murgai, 1988).

Robert H. Burger

Samuel Lazerow Fellowship for Research in Acquisitions or Technical Services in an Academic or Research Library

Robert H. Burger, Slavic acquisitions librarian at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has been chosen to receive the Samuel Lazerow

Fellowship. The award, $1,000 and a plaque, is donated by the Institute for Scientific Information and will be presented to him at the ACRL President’s Program in Dallas.

“Burger’s proposal, entitled ‘Computer Simulations of Cataloging Backlog Dynamics,’ was selected for its originality, creativity, and promise in developing a theoretical understanding of the dynamics of cataloging backlogs,” said committee chair Don Lanier, head of special collections at Northern Illinois University. Using the Stella for Education simulation software, Burger will develop three simulation models for cataloging backlog dynamics. In his proposal, Burger states that “backlogged items translate into a lack of access to library materials and this directly contravenes the library’s main purpose.” Burger’s study proposes to clarify current notions of backlog dynamics and synthesize them into a comprehensive theory and he hopes this will create a more efficient process for backlogs, better allocation of library resources and possible applications of similar simulations to other library system dynamics.

Burger has been at the University of Illinois since 1976 and was promoted to associate Slavic librarian in 1987. Burger received a master’s degree in Slavic languages and literatures from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, in 1975 and a Ph.D. in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1988.

Burger is the author of Authority Work: The Creation, Use, Maintenance, and Evaluation of Authority Records and Files (Libraries Unlimited, 1985), which has been translated and published in Tokyo. Burger has also served as a translator of Scientific Communications and Informatics (Information Resources Press, 1984).

The Samuel Lazerow Fellowship is funded by the Institute for Scientific Information in memory of Samuel Lazerow, the ISI vice-president for administration from 1972 until his death in 1981. Lazerow had a distinguished career in library and information science and held high-level posts in each of the three national libraries of the United States—the National Library of Agriculture, the National Library of Medicine, and the Library of Congress. The fellowship is awarded annually to foster advances in acquisitions or technical services. Previous winners include: Denise Bedford, “Technical Processing Costs in Large Academic Research Libraries” (1983); Anna L. Highsmith, ’’Online Cataloging Systems and the Man-Machine Interface” (1985); Margaret Johnson, “Implementing Technological Change in Library Technical Service Units” (1987); and Carol Kelley, “Incorporation of CD-ROM Databases into Acquisitions Workflow.”

Hugh Atkinson Memorial Award

Thomas J. Michalak, associate vice president for academic services and director of university libraries at Carnegie Mellon University, has been selected as the 1989 recipient of the Hugh C. Atkinson Memorial Award. Michalak will receive this award, which carries a cash prize of $2,000 and a citation, during the 1989 ALA Annual Conference in Dallas at the Library Administration and Management Association (LAMA) President’s Program on Sunday, June 25, 2:00-4:00 p.m.

In selecting Michalak for the award, the chair of the award jury, Ronald G. Leach, dean of library services at Indiana State University, said, “The Committee was impressed with Michalak’s willingness to take risks in forging a merger of libraries and computing at Carnegie Mellon University, his support and encouragement of experimentation by staff, and his strong commitment to regional library cooperation, because these characteristics were so reflective of Hugh Atkinson’s contributions to the profession.”

This award, established to honor the life and accomplishments of Hugh C. Atkinson, a major innovator in modern librarianship, recognizes outstanding achievement (including risk-taking) by academic librarians related to library automation or library management that has contributed significantly to improvements in the area of library automation, library management, and/or library development or research.

Thomas J. Michalak

“Tom Michalak’s distinguished career in academic librarianship is a chronicle of excellence in library automation, management and research. Through it all, Tom has demonstrated a relish for risk-taking, but always with the aim of improvement in services to the user,” said William Arms, vice president for academic services at Carnegie Mellon University, in his letter nominating Michalak for the award.

In a letter supporting the nomination, H.E. Broadbent III, executive director of the Pittsburgh Regional Library Center, said, “It is clear to me as head of the regional resource sharing network, that through his management style Tom has attracted to CMU, and retained, an extraordinary group of professionals who readily assume leadership positions among their peers. They are creative, energized individuals, who can be relied upon to get things done. They are a credit to the profession, to CMU, and to Tom Michalak. I only wish there were more of them!”

Prior to joining Carnegie Mellon University as director of the libraries in 1980, Michalak was chief of the Science and Engineering Division, Columbia University Libraries, from 1975 to 1980. Michalak was selected for the first group of management interns supported by the Council on Library Resources in 1974-1975. Michalak received his MLS from the University of Illinois in 1966 and his master’s degree in political science from the same institution in 1967. Michalak has written numerous articles and proposals, presented papers, and been active in regional library cooperation activities.

The Hugh C. Atkinson Memorial Award is jointly sponsored by ACRL, LAMA, the Library and Information Technology Association (LITA), and the Resources and Technical Services Division (RTSD), four divisions of the American Library Association. The first award went to Richard M. Dougherty in 1988. The award is funded by an endowment created by division, individual, and vendor contributions given in memory of Hugh C. Atkinson. Additional funds are sought to bring the endowment to at least $100,000. You may send your tax deductible contributions to the Hugh Atkinson Memorial Award, ACRL/ALA, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611.

Nominations for next year’s award should be sent to Mary Ellen Davis, ACRL program officer, ACRL/ALA, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611, (800) 545-2433; in Illinois, (800) 545-2444; in Canada, (800) 545-2455.

K.G. Saur Award for Best Article in College and Research Libraries

“Subject Searching in an Online Catalog with Authority Control,” an article by Noelle Van Pulis and Lorene E. Ludy appearing in the November 1988 issue of College and Research Libraries, has been named the winner of the K.G. Saur Award for Best College and Research Libraries Article. The $500 award, donated by publishing company K.G. Saur, will be presented at the ACRL President’s Program in Dallas on June 26.

Noelle Van Pulis

“This is an article of major significance on a topic which affects all academic librarians, and even more importantly, all academic library users. Using research techniques particularly valuable to librarianship, the authors have written an outstanding article presented in a clear and concise manner,” said Mary Reichel, assistant university librarian for central services at the University of Arizona, and chair of the award jury.

The winning article examines subject searching in an online public access catalog with a controlled vocabulary. Previous studies have indicated that users felt subject searching capabilities could be improved if the system offered a display of terms related to their topics. Van Pulis and Ludy studied the subject searchers’ use of an online display of authority information from Library of Congress Subject Headings for terms used in the catalog. They found that, of the terms entered by users, 78% were an exact or close match to catalog terms, and another 14% matched “see” references. They also found that although additional information was available for nearly half of the searches performed, it was used in only 28% of these cases. They concluded that improvements in subject searching features are needed to encourage use of available syndetic structure.

Noelle Van Pulis is systems librarian, and Lorene E. Ludy is former catalog planning librarian at the Ohio State University Libraries, Columbus, Ohio. Van Pulis is responsible for maintenance of the libraries’ automated system, LCS, and for developing instructional materials and programs for library users. She has written and made presentations on the topic of online catalog design, use, and instruction. As catalog planning librarian, Ludy was responsible for the research and maintenance of catalog headings.

The K.G. Saur Award was established to recognize the most outstanding article published in College and Research Libraries (C&RL) during the preceding volume year. The winning article is selected on the basis of originality, timeliness, relevance to ACRL areas of interest and concern and quality of writing. The first award went to Jordan Scepanski, Robert Boice, and Wayne Wilson for their article, “Librarians and Faculty Members: Coping with Pressures to Publish,” (CćrRL, November 1987).

Maureen Pastine

Articles for College and Research Libraries may be submitted to Charles Martell, Editor, C&RL, The Library, 2000 Jed Smith Drive, California State University, Sacramento, CA 95819.

Miriam Dudley Award for Bibliographic Instruction

Maureen Pastine, director of libraries at Washington State University, Pullman, has been named the Miriam Dudley Bibliographic Instruction Librarian of the Year by ACRL. The award, $1,000 and a plaque, is donated by Mountainside Publishing, Ann Arbor, on behalf of its publication, Research Strategies, and is administered by the ACRL Bibliographic Instruction Section (BIS). Pastine will receive the award during the ALA Annual Conference in Dallas at the BIS program on Sunday, June 25, at 2:00 p.m.

“The award recognizes Pastine’s contributions to BI as an instructor, leader, researcher, and mentor,” said chair of the award committee Barbara Wittkopf, head of reference desk services at Louisiana State University. Pastine was one of the founding members of the Bibliographic Instruction Section and served as chair of the section in 1983-1984. The award jury was impressed with her sustained interest in bibliographic instruction, which began when she was chair of the reference department at the University of Nebraska-Omaha and continued through her positions as reference librarian at the University of Illinois, and as university librarian at San Jose State University.

Pastine has written extensively and has made numerous presentations on the topic of user instruction. She is also known for leading international delegations of librarians to Russia, Australia, New Zealand, and the People’s Republic of China. Pastine is active in many units of the American Library Association and currently serves as an elected member-at-large to the Library Administration and Management Association’s Statistics Section. She also chairs the ACRL Task Force on International Relations.

The Dudley Award was established to recognize librarians who have made an especially significant contribution to the advancement of bibliographic instruction. Previous recipients of the Dudley Award have been Thomas Kirk (1984), Carolyn Kirkendall (1985), Virginia Tiefel (1986), Evan I. Farber (1987), and Sharon A. Hogan (1988).

Nominations for the 1990 award should be sent to David King, University of Kentucky, College of Library and Information Science, 502 King Library Bldg., Lexington, KY40506-0391.

Katherine Kyes Leab and Daniel J. Leab American Book Prices Current Exhibition Catalogue Awards

The Katharine Kyes Leab and Daniel J. Leab American Book Prices Current Exhibition Catalogue Awards have been announced by ACRL’s Rare Books and Manuscripts Section (RBMS).

First-place winners in the three divisions— expensive, moderate, and inexpensive—and institutions submitting the catalogues were as follows: “For Your Amusement and Instruction: The Elisabeth Ball Collection of Historical Children’s Materials,” submitted by Indiana University’s Lilly Library, tied with “Time Sanctified: The Book of Hours in Medieval Art and Life,” from the Walters Art Gallery (first division); “Fraktur: A Selective Guide to the Franklin and Marshall Fraktur Collection,” offered by Franklin and Marshall College (second division); and “Eccentric Books: An Exhibition,” entered by Yale University Library from its Arts of the Book Collection (third division).

“Exhibition Catalogue Awards Committee members enjoy the opportunity to study each year’s awards entries, though selecting winners is not an easy task,” said award committee chair Pat Bozeman, head of special collections at the University of Houston Libraries. “Truly exceptional exhibition catalogues are being published in U.S. and Canadian institutions, and the 57 examples received for

TIME SANCTIFIED

The Book ot Hours in Medieval Art and Life judging this year show a wide array of subject and design possibilities.”

First division winner (Walters Art Gallery)

April 1989 / 293

First division winner “For Your Amusement and Instruction” deserves praise for bringing a virtually unknown collection to the attention of a wide and varied audience with its tasteful use of design, color and illustrations. “Time Sanctified” is exceptional for its originality in using the canonical hours as a framework for the exhibition, for the readability and intelligence of its text, and for the beauty and quality of its illustrations.

The committee was attracted to the way “Fraktur” sensitively treats the paleographical, decorative, and theological significance of one of the most beautiful genres of American folk art. The handsomely illustrated text shows innovation in the inclusion of transcriptions and translations of each of the German texts, thus making the catalogue an important educational document.

Yale University’s exhibit of pop-up, flap, revolving, cut-out, shaped, and many other types of books had a catalogue to match in “Eccentric Books” (third division). A hand-made product of one person, this catalogue is entertaining and cleverly conceived and perfectly represents the books in the exhibit.

Additional catalogues singled out for honorable mention include: “Legacies of Genius: A Celebration of Philadelphia Libraries,” Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collections Libraries (first division); “Pushkin and His Friends: The Making of a Literature and a Myth,” Houghton Library, Harvard University (second division); “Robinson Jeffers, Poet, 1887-1987: A Centennial Exhibition,” Occidental College, Book Arts Program (third division).

Printed citations will be presented to the award winners at the RBMS program on June 25, 2:00-5:00 p.m., at the ALA Annual Conference in Dallas. This is the fourth year the awards have been given.

Divisions were based upon costs for producing the exhibition catalogues. Catalogues published between September 1, 1987, and August 31, 1988, were eligible for this year’s competition. Entries for the period September 1, 1988, though August 31, 1989, must be submitted by September 30, 1989.

Criteria for granting the awards include excellence in originality, informational content, visual impact and appropriateness of design, success with intended audience and accuracy of detail.

For further information, contact Pat Bozeman, University of Houston Libraries, Houston, TX 77204-2091; (713) 749-2726.

Martinus Nijhoff International

West European Specialist Study Grant

James H. Spohrer, librarian for Germanic collections at the University of California, Berkeley, has been selected to receive the 1989 Martinus Nijhoff International West European Study Grant. The grant covers air travel to and from Europe, transportation in Europe, and lodging and board for no more than fourteen consecutive days.

James H. Spohner

The goal of Spohrer’s project, entitled “Preserving the Written Record: Evaluation of Preservation Programs at Four Major European Libraries,” is to “heighten awareness among both U.S. and European libraries of the extent of the preservation problem for Western European materials which we jointly face, to emphasize successful programs and techniques currently in place, and to develop creative cooperative strategies to ensure that all materials in need of preservation will receive it within an organized inter-institutional framework.” Spohrer will visit four important western European libraries to observe and film conservation activities, including special preservation practices.

“Preservation is a topic of crucial concern, and the focus of this project on Western Europe is a useful exploration of issues that arose during the Western European Specialist Section’s Florence Conference last year,” said Assunta Pisani, associate librarian for collection development at Harvard University, and chair of the award jury.

Spohrer is the librarian for Germanic collections, comparative literature, medieval Latin and modern Greek at the University of California, Berkeley. He has a broad linguistic background that includes fluency in German, English, and French, and a knowledge of Russian, Dutch, Latin, Greek, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, and Frisian. He has reviewed numerous books for Choice magazine and served as the editor for the sections on German history and German and Dutch literature for Books for College Libraries, 3d edition. Spohrer has a master’s degree in comparative literature and is completing his dissertation on medieval German literature at the University of California, Berkeley. He received his MLS from Louisiana State University.

The Nijhoff grant is given annually to an ALA member to study some aspect of West European studies, librarianship, or the book trade. The primary criterion for awarding the grant is the significance and utility of the proposed project as a contribution to the study of the acquisition, organization or use of library materials from or relating to Western Europe. A research report suitable for publication must be submitted to ACRL within six months of completing the trip. The first grant went to Frederick Lynden in 1986 for his project, “Price Indexes of European and Academic Library Materials.” The second award went to Michael Albin in 1987 for a project on “Refugee and Exile Publishing in Western Europe.” The award was not given in 1988.