James L. Mullins wins Hugh C. Atkinson Memorial Award

James L. Mullins, dean of libraries and Esther Ellis Norton professor at Purdue University, has been named the winner of the Hugh C. Atkinson Memorial Award. Mullins will receive a cash award and citation during the 2016 ALA Annual Conference in Orlando, Florida.

James L. Mullins

Named in honor of one of the pioneers of library automation, the Atkinson Award recognizes an academic librarian who has made significant contributions in the area of library automation or management and has made notable improvements in library services or research.

“Through his pioneering vision and drive for innovation, Dr. James (Jim) Mullins has led the transformation of Purdue University Libraries into a premier, profession leading 21st-century academic and research library,” said Colby Riggs, Hugh C. Atkinson Memorial Award committee chair and project coordinator at the University of California-Irvine. “He is internationally recognized as a risk-taking, creative, and visionary leader in the academic and research library profession with a demonstrated commitment to information literacy, data research services, digital scholarship, scholarly communication, diversity, and innovation and collaboration with the university and library community.

“Dr. Mullins is a passionate believer in information literacy and staunch advocate for its integration into curriculum and research,” continued Riggs. “At Purdue, he was able to establish the W. Wayne Booker Endowed Chair in Information Literacy, a first in the nation.

“It was Dr. Mullins’ initiative that a new building was conceived and designed which embraced the active learning concept,” Riggs added. “The Wilmeth Active Learning Center, a 164,000 square foot facility is under construction in the center of campus. The space blends teaching spaces, library/information services, formal study spaces, collaborative work areas, and informal learning spaces and will be the site of 27 collaborative active learning classrooms and six consolidated engineering and science libraries when it opens in 2017.

“Dr. Mullins was at the forefront of identifying the need for data management and preservation services, having played a pivotal role in positioning the libraries to partner with researchers to create a data repository known as the Purdue University Research Repository. This resulted in the libraries developing a suite of data services, including Data Curation Profiles and consultations for Data Management Plans,” said Riggs. “Additionally, advancing scholarly communication is one of Dr. Mullins’ top priorities. To this end he has created a Libraries Scholarly Publishing Services division, which includes the institutional repository, and strategically combined it with the Purdue University Press, another first in the nation. He has helped foster innovation in publishing as a founding member of the Library Publishing Coalition, an independent, community-led membership association led by college and university libraries to support the creation, dissemination, and curation of scholarly works.”

Under Mullins’s leadership, Purdue University Libraries was named the recipient of the 2015 ACRL Excellence in Academic Libraries Award in the university category.

The Hugh C. Atkinson Award is jointly sponsored by four ALA divisions: ACRL, Association for Library Collections and Technical Services, the Library Leadership and Management Association, and the Library and Information Technology Association. The award is funded from an endowment established to honor Hugh C. Atkinson.

Donations to the endowment may be sent to Chase Ollis, ACRL, 50 East Huron St., Chicago, Illinois 60611.

Pearl Ly receives CJCLS EBSCO Community College Learning Resources Leadership Award

Pearl Ly, director of the learning commons at Skyline College in San Bruno, California, has been chosen to receive the Community and Junior College Libraries Section (CJCLS) EBSCO Community College Learning Resources Leadership Award.

The $750 award and plaque, donated by EBSCO Information Services, will be presented to Ly at the ALA Annual Conference.

“Dr. Ly stood out to the committee as an impressive example of early career leadership,” said award Cochairs Sarah North of Casper College and Julia Mielish of Wake Technical Community College. “Her promotion to administration has been underscored by significant achievements in both local and national spheres. She has demonstrated a strong dedication to leadership within the field, and has been a passionate library advocate. The committee is excited to offer her the CJCLS Leadership Award and looks forward to her future accomplishments.”

Pearl Ly

Austin Community College program wins CJCLS EBSCO Community College Learning Resources Award

Austin Community College Library Services has been chosen to receive the Community and Junior College Libraries Section (CJCLS) EBSCO Community College Learning Resources Award for its information literacy tutorials program.

The $750 award and plaque, donated by EBSCO Information Services, will be presented to Courtney Mlinar and Irena Klaic, cochairs of the Austin Community College Information Literacy Team, at the ALA Annual Conference.

Austin Community College Library Services has integrated information literacy tutorials and instruction within many key academic and workforce programs. The Research Tutorials Suite follows student learning outcomes to help educate students about key information literacy concepts, and to increase student success and equity. The tutorials use humor to convey the concepts and include an assessment measure to confirm completion and understanding of the student learning outcome.

“Austin Community College has created an innovative collection of information literacy tutorials that are used as benchmarks for other community colleges across the country,” said award Cochairs Sarah North of Casper College and Julia Mielish of Wake Technical Community College.

“These tutorials are mapped to student learning outcomes and cover a broad range of topics and can be used for academic as well as workforce development programs. The committee is excited to see Austin Community College recognized for this significant achievement in information literacy tutorials.”

Brumfield named Routledge Distance Learning Librarianship Conference Sponsorship Award winner

Elizabeth Brumfield, distance services librarian at Prairie View A&M University, has been named the recipient of the Routledge Distance Learning Librarianship Conference Sponsorship Award.

Elizabeth Brumfield

This annual award, sponsored by Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group, and administrated by ACRL’s Distance Learning Section, honors an ACRL member working in the field of, or contributing to, the success of distance learning librarianship or related library service in higher education.

Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group will present the $1,200 award and plaque at the ALA Annual Conference.

“Ms. Brumfield has proved her dedication to distance librarianship as evidenced by her professional contributions and service,” said award Cochairs Rebecca Nowicki of Ashford University and Brandon West of the State University of New York-Geneseo. “Her exemplary record of leadership models the type of high standards encouraged by the ACRL Distance Learning Section.”

Holliday wins IS Miriam Dudley Instruction Librarian Award

Wendy Holliday, head of teaching, learning and research services at Northern Arizona University, is the winner of the ACRL Instruction Section’s (IS) Miriam Dudley Instruction Librarian Award. The award honors Miriam Dudley, whose efforts in the field of information literacy led to the formation of IS. The honor recognizes a librarian who has made a significant contribution to the advancement of instruction in a college or research library environment.

Wendy Holliday

Holliday will receive her $1,000 award, along with a plaque, at the IS program during the ALA Annual Conference.

“Throughout an extraordinary career, Wendy Holliday has demonstrated a passionate commitment to student learning and a willingness to collaborate across institutional boundaries that has inspired countless colleagues both in and outside the profession,” said award Chair Mark Szarko, literature, global studies and languages and theater arts librarian at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “She has developed and led information literacy programs at both Utah State University and Northern Arizona University that serve as models for other institutions.

“Her publications include more than 16 journal articles, book chapters, and essays, most published in peer-reviewed sources,” continued Szarko. “One of these articles, ‘Talking about Information Literacy: The Mediating Role of Discourse in a College Writing Classroom,’ was honored with the ACRL Instruction Section Ilene F. Rockman Instruction Publication of the Year Award in 2014. Her record of professional service within ACRL includes several key leadership positions in the Instruction Section. As a member of the ACRL Immersion Program faculty since 2011, she has taught several cohorts of librarians not only to become better teachers, but inspiring instructional leaders at their own institutions and beyond.”

Jagman and Swanson receive IS Ilene F. Rockman Publication of the Year award

Heather Jagman, coordinator of reference, instruction and academic engagement at DePaul University, and Troy A. Swanson, department chair, library and teaching and learning librarian at Moraine Valley Community College, have been chosen as the winners of ACRL’s Instruction Section (IS) Ilene F. Rockman Publication of the Year Award as editors of the book Not Just Where to Click: Teaching Students How to Think about Infor mation published in 2015 by ACRL. The award recognizes an outstanding publication related to library instruction published in the past two years.

Heather Jagman

The award, donated by Emerald Group Publishing, consists of a plaque and a cash prize of $3,000. Jagman and Swanson will receive their award during the ALA Annual Conference.

“Not Just Where to Click is an extremely useful and well-designed volume that considers information literacy instruction from a variety of perspectives,” said award committee Chair Elana D. Karshmer of Saint Leo University. “It brings together a collection of essays on how librarians can not only rethink their own instruction practices in terms of changes in what students ‘bring to the table,’ but it also challenges practitioners to go beyond the mere fact of teaching research skills to suggest that librarians engage in teaching students to think critically and consider how information helps them interpret and understand their world. The committee was impressed by the authors’ ability to produce a volume that could be used in tandem with the new ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education.”

Troy A. Swanson

Not Just Where to Click: Teaching Students How to Think about Information explores how librarians and faculty work together to teach students about the nature of expertise, authority, and credibility. It provides practical approaches for motivating students to explore their beliefs, biases, and ways of interpreting the world.

The book also includes chapters that bridge the gap between the epistemological stances and threshold concepts held by librarians and faculty, and those held by students, focusing on pedagogies that challenge students to evaluate authority, connect to prior knowledge, and construct new knowledge in a world of information abundance. Authors draw from a deep pool of perspectives, including social psychology, critical theory, and various philosophical traditions.

Contributors to the 19 chapters in this volume offer a balance of theoretical and applied approaches to teaching information literacy, supplying readers with accessible and innovative ideas ready to be put into practice.

RBMS Leab Exhibition Award winners

ACRL’s Rare Books and Manuscripts Section (RBMS) has selected four winners and one honorable mention for the 2016 Katharine Kyes Leab and Daniel J. Leab American Book Prices Current Exhibition Awards.

The awards, funded by an endowment established by Katharine Kyes Leab and Daniel J. Leab, editors of American Book Prices Current, recognize outstanding printed exhibition catalogs and guides, and electronic exhibitions produced by North America and Caribbean institutions. Certificates will be presented to each winner at the ALA Annual Conference.

The Division One (expensive) winner is The Grolier Club for “One Hundred Books Famous in Children’s Literature.”

“This landmark catalog represents a significant scholarly contribution to book history while also being accessible to a broad audience,” said David Faulds, chair of the RBMS Exhibition Awards Committee and curator of rare books and literary manuscripts at the University of California-Berkeley. “The committee commented that the volume was ‘immediately canonical,’ while noting the impressive amount of work that went into the detailed bibliographical descriptions for each entry. In addition to the engaging subject matter, the catalog was well designed with the entries clearly laid out with additional flourishes to evoke the subject matter.”

The Division One (expensive) honorable mention is the Herbert and Eileen Bernard Museum of Judaica for “The Writing on the Wall: A Catalogue of Judaica Broadsides from the Valmadonna Trust Library.”

“The committee felt this catalog deserved an honorable mention as it represents a significant addition to scholarship,” noted Faulds. “The book highlights a largely unknown and unexplored subject area while also providing access to a unique, privately held collection. The entries are thoroughly described and illustrated with high quality reproductions as part of an overall handsome design.”

The Division Two (moderately expensive) winner is the University of Pennsylvania Libraries Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books, and Manuscripts for “The Images Affair: Dreyfus in the Media, 1894–1906.”

“This catalog takes an innovative approach to an historical event by examining it through the visual culture that surrounded it,” remarked Faulds. “The committee acknowledged the very high quality of scholarly production, including apparatus such as a chronology and a selected bibliography. The catalog has high production values with the detailed bibliographic entries being divided into compelling categories. It also displays subtle but beautiful and unifying graphic design elements. Finally, the committee felt it significant that such an excellent catalog was the result of a student-curated exhibition.”

The Division Three (inexpensive) winner is Yale University’s East Asia Library for “Treasures from Japan in the Yale University Library.”

“The committee felt this catalog, which was given away for free, demonstrated a strong combination of style and substance,” stated Faulds. “Befitting the subject matter, the text is in English and Japanese and the catalog was designed so that the two texts and images did not compete with one another on the page. The oblong format of the catalog helped present the content clearly while also evoking Japanese book design. Finally, the committee noted the high quality of the images which brought the subject to life.”

The Division Four (brochures) winner is Brigham Young University’s Harold B. Lee Library L. Tom Perry Special Collections for “Rose Marie Reid: Glamour by Design.”

“This brochure deservedly won in its category for its flair and unusual but engaging subject matter, which combines swimsuit design and religion,” Faulds said. “Text and image are well integrated and make effective use of the accordion fold format. The color scheme, typography, and layout echo the time period of Reid and her clothing designs. The committee was also delighted by playful elements such as a ‘Dive in’ link to the online exhibition.”

Denda wins WGSS Career Achievement Award

Kayo Denda, head of the Margery Somers Foster Center and Women’s Studies librarian at Rutgers University, has been selected as the winner of ACRL’s Women and Gender Studies Section (WGSS) Career Achievement Award. The award honors significant long-standing contributions to women’s studies in the field of librarianship over the course of a career.

Kayo Denda

A plaque will be presented to Denda at a WGSS event during the ALA Annual Conference.

“Throughout her career, [Denda] has been involved in planning and implementing academic and research programs in women and gender studies that are exemplary,” said award Chair Diane Fulkerson, director of information commons/library services at the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee. “She is an active member in WGSS and IFLA, and is a role model for not only women and gender studies librarians, but for all academic librarians.”

Denda is a past chair of WGSS. She led the team of activists and librarians that created the Center for Women’s Global Leadership Poster Collection, which won the 2012 ACRL WGSS Significant Achievement Award. Denda currently serves as liaison to Rutgers University’s Department of Women’s and Gender Studies, the Institute for Women’s Leadership, the Institute for Research on Women, the Center for Women’s Global Leadership, and the Douglass Residential College.