C&RL News April 2021 162 ACRL is pleased to recognize the recipients of its 2021 awards. Made possible by generous corporate support, the annual presentation of ACRL’s awards enables ACRL to honor the very best in academic and research librarianship. Excellence in Academic Libraries Awards The recipients of the 2021 Excellence in Aca- demic Libraries Awards are Davidson College E. H. Little L i b r a r y ( D a v i d - son, North Carolina); Tulsa Com- m u n i t y College Li- brary (Tul- sa, Okla- h o m a ) ; and Loyola M a r y - m o u n t University William H. Hannon Library (Los Angeles, California). Spon- sored by ACRL and GOBI Library Solutions from EBSCO, the award recognizes the staff of a college, community college, and university library for programs that deliver exemplary services and resources to further the educational mission of the institution. “I am delighted that ACRL can highlight the many contributions that academic libraries make to their institutions, especially in the wake of this challenging and unprecedented year,” said ACRL Interim Executive Director Kara J. Malenfant. “The 2021 award recipients demonstrate strength and innovation in the face of a global health crisis, a clear commitment to student success and equity, and engagement with their local and campus communi- ties. Receiving an Excellence in Academic Libraries Award is a tribute to each library and its entire staff for outstand- ing services, programs, and leader- ship.” D a v i d s o n College E. H. Little Library “The E. H. Little L i b r a r y has dem- o n s t r a t e d how their expertise, programming, and resources support and enhance the strategic priorities of the college,” said Lauren Pressley, chair of the 2021 Excellence in Aca- Chase Ollis ACRL honors the 2021 award recipients A recognition of professional development Chase Ollis is ACRL professional development and outreach specialist, email: collis@ala.org © 2021 Chase Ollis Davidson College E. H. Little Library staff. mailto:collis%40ala.org?subject= April 2021 C&RL News163 Julia M. Gelfand named 2021 ACRL Academic/Research Librarian of the Year Julia M. Gelfand, applied sciences and engineering librarian at the University of California (UC)-Irvine, is the 2021 ACRL Academic/Research Librarian of the Year. The award, spon- sored by GOBI Library Solutions from EBSCO, recognizes an outstanding member of the library profession who has made a significant national or international contribution to academic/research librarianship and library development. Gelfand will receive a $5,000 award and will be recog- nized during the ACRL 2021 virtual conference in April. “Julia Gelfand, long-time applied science and engineering librarian at the University of California- Irvine, has spent more than four decades shaping research librarianship for the better,” noted ACRL Academic/Research Librarian of the Year Award Committee Chair Dennis Clark of the Library of Congress. “Julia is known as a relationship builder, as is evidenced by her tireless and successful fundraising efforts for ACRL as a member of its Conference Colleagues Committee,” Clark added. “In addition, she has been an active scholar, board mem- ber, reviewer, and editor. Perhaps nothing can summarize her contributions better than the citation when she was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2020, which states that the honor is ‘for significant and distinguished contributions to professional societies, advancements to the study of scientific publishing and grey literature, and service as a distinguished science librarian.’” “I am so moved to receive this recognition,” Gelfand said. “This award signifies all the professional values I hold most dear—commitment to service, embrace of multiple literacies, diversity, collaboration, intellectual freedom, new technologies, and innovation in the spirit of learning. When I reflect on how inspired I have been by previous recipients, each of whom have charted a special path through their own accomplishments and shared common pride we have associated with academic libraries, I am gratified. I am deeply grateful to all those I have worked with and what a career high this honor is to treasure.” Gelfand exemplifies excellence in academic and research librarianship through her leadership, service, and passion for the profession. Throughout her decades-long career, she has been a leader at both UC-Irvine, where she is greatly respected across the campus community and received the 2015 UC‐Irvine Engagement Award for Staff Service, and in the academic library community. . The extent to which Gelfand’s research and scholarship has been influential can be seen in the nearly 125 times she has been a sought-after speaker at conferences, both nation- ally and internationally, as well as her more than 25 journal articles and other publications. In addition, Gelfand has served as an associate editor for The Grey Journal, the flagship journal for the international grey literature community, since its launch in 2004. Within ACRL, she served as a director-at-large on the association’s Board of Directors (2013-17) along with serving as vice-chair/chair-elect (2004-05), chair (2005-06), and past chair (2006-07) of the Science and Technology Section (STS). Gelfand has contributed greatly to the success of the biennial ACRL Confer- ence, serving as Colleague Committee cochair for the 2009, 2015, 2017, 2019, and 2021 conferences. She also served as a member of the 2005, 2007, and 2011- 21 ACRL Conference Committee. Her work on the Colleagues Committee in securing robust funding for the confer- ence by creating close relationships with other members of the scholarly communication ecosystem was especially noted by her nominators. “I am delighted to recognize Julia Gelfand with ACRL’s top individual award,” said ACRL Interim Executive Director Kara J. Malenfant. “Her selfless commitment to scholarship and service has been a major benefit to the profession over the course of her career. I particularly appreciate Julia’s numerous contributions to ACRL, especially her work in helping ensure the financial success of many ACRL conferences.” In addition to her work with ACRL, Gelfand has served as chair or committee member for groups in the Associa- tion for Library Collections and Technical Services, Society for Scholarly Publishing, and IFLA, along with serving as secretary of the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Information, Computing, and Communication Section. Gelfand was also honored as a 2020 National Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Prior to joining UC-Irvine in 1981, Gelfand served as reference librarian and assistant head of reference at the University of Denver Penrose Libraries. Julia M. Gelfand C&RL News April 2021 164 demic Libraries Awards Committee and associate dean for research and learning services at the Uni- versity of Washington. “Of particular note, the library staff has dem- onstrated that all library work contributes to social justice, providing a model for others to follow in engaging meaningfully with this work at a campus level. The library led, and has been a key partner, in helping transition instruction in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, developing training and ongoing learning opportunities to encourage further faculty development.” Like many institutions, the COVID-19 pan- demic sent D a v i d s o n C o l l e g e i n t o a n emergency r e m o t e s i t u a t i o n i n Ma r c h 2 0 2 0 . A s f a c u l t y scrambled t o p i v o t t h e i r i n - p e r s o n c o u r s e s online and s t u d e n t s adjusted to the challenges brought on by the pandemic, the library sprang into action. With a week’s notice, they worked with faculty to transition more than 700 courses into an online environment. As the pandemic continued into the summer, the library team spearheaded efforts to prepare faculty for long- term online teaching through an intensive four-week Digital Learning Institute (DLI), focusing on mak- ing online courses accessible and equitable, creating community, and keeping students motivated and engaged. The DLI has since continued as bi-weekly coffee chats designed for faculty to share and discuss challenges and successes in the online classroom. “We are honored to be recognized by ACRL for the dedication, hard work, and creativity of the E. H. Little Library team,” said Lisa Forrest, Leland M. Park director of the Davidson College Library. “As we work to advance Davidson Col- lege’s purpose of preparing students with humane instincts and disciplined and creative minds for lives of leadership and service, we are inspired daily by our students, faculty, and campus partners. We live in an especially fraught moment, and the college’s public commitment to access, racial equity, and social justice compels us to embrace a special set of responsibilities in everything we do. This award is a powerful acknowledgement of the role of the library in helping to create a more hopeful and just future.” Tulsa Community College Library “The TCC Library demonstrated a strategic ap- proach of d e v e l o p - ing strong p a r t n e r - ships with other of- fices across the institu- tion to fur- ther TCC’s e d u c a - tional mis- sion and s t u d e n t s u p p o r t ,” P r e s s l e y said. “The li- brary is notable for their use of different types of as- sessment to enable data-driven decision making. The staff were quick to adapt in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, moving services online and partnering with other units to expand technology lending for their community.” TCC Library’s partnerships across campus have been key to its success in supporting student learning and the institution’s mission of “building success through education.” To expand access to technology, the library created the Hotspot @ Home and Student Laptop Loan programs. Hotspot @ Home, funded through a partnership with the TCC Foundation, piloted in 2016 with just ten devices available for three-day checkout periods, has grown to support more than 200 devices available for entire semesters. The Student Laptop Loan Program, created in partnership with TCC’s Staff at the Tulsa Community College Library. April 2021 C&RL News165 Student Affairs department, provided 165 laptops for semester-long checkout in direct response to the COVID-19 pandemic. And in further response to the pandemic, the library supported several other departments across campus with the library’s chat service platform. “We are both excited and humbled to be recog- nized for our work,” said Paula Settoon, TCC dean of libraries and knowledge management. “At TCC our vision is an educated, employed, and thriving com- munity. The Library plays a big part in making that vision a reality by partnering with faculty to provide targeted support to students, increasing students’ access to t e c h n o l - ogy, and p a r t n e r - ing with other de- partments to create c o m m u - nity both on campus and virtu- ally for the s t u d e n t s we serve.” Loyola Mayrmount University William H. Hannon Library “The William H. Hannon Library demonstrated a clear case of initiatives that bolster the institution’s mission, in particular encouraging learning, edu- cating the whole person, and social justice,” Press- ley noted. “The library has embraced evidence- based practices and built a culture of assessment, which is evident in the outcomes of their initia- tives. Further, their leadership in the Institute for Research Design in Librarianship is far-reaching in its impact for the field.” Beginning in 2014, the library supported an annual, yearlong continuing education experience to help novice academic librarians improve their research skills and complete a research project for their design. Catalyzed with grant funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services and de- signed around components of the research process, the Institute for Research Design and Librarianship (IRDL) covers a wide range of topics, including scholarly publishing strategies, various qualitative and quantitative research methods, and tools for strengthening personal networks. Throughout the development of their projects, IRDL participants have access to a formal mentor program, as well as past cohorts. While the pandemic has forced the program to pause, the library plans to resume it when it is safe to do so and is exploring the creation of a virtual summer workshop to help address the needs of intermediate researchers. “At the William H. Hannon Library, we contin- ually strive to be the best versions of ourselves,” said K r i s t i n e R. Bran- c o l i n i , d e a n o f the library at Loyola M a r y - m o u n t U n i v e r - sity. “We are driven b y o u r c a m p u s culture to be innova- tive, inclu- sive, and collaborative. The Jesuit and Marymount values of Loyola Marymount University require us to consider who is left out in any conversation and to identify where we can do better. We are thrilled to receive this honor and hope that our work can serve as a model for libraries of all shapes and sizes.” Each library will receive $3,000 and a plaque. Hugh C. Atkinson Memorial Award Mark E. Phillips, associate dean for digital librar- ies at the University of North Texas (UNT), has been named the 2021 recipient of the Hugh C. Atkinson Memorial Award. Phillips will receive a cash award and plaque and will be recognized at a virtual event hosted by ALA’s Core: Leadership, Infrastructure, Futures division later this year. Named in honor of one of the pioneers of li- brary automation, the Atkinson Award recognizes an academic librarian who has made significant contributions in library automation or management Loyola Marymount University William H. Hannon Library staff. C&RL News April 2021 166 and has made notable improvements in library services or research. “The award committee selected Mark Phillips for the Hugh C. Atkinson Memorial Award from a strong group of nominations,” said Dale Poulter, Hugh C. Atkinson Memorial Award committee chair and director of library technology and digital services at Vanderbilt University. “Mark has worked in libraries for more than 15 years. His work in the area of web archiving continues to provide access to government information long after the original websites are no longer available. As Mark has developed digital library infrastructure, he has continued to share the innovations through open-source software.” Phillips is the architect of the UNT Libraries digital libraries’ infrastructure, which includes the UNT Digital Library, the Portal to Texas History, and the Gateway to Oklahoma History. The digitized contents in these platforms—about 3.4 million digital objects—are freely available to the public and have been accessed more than 144 million times since com- ing online. As his nominator notes, “These systems are seen as exemplars, and Mark shares his expertise in these areas widely with the library community through his personal blog, publications, and many papers presented both nationally and internationally.” The Hugh C. Atkinson Memorial Award is jointly sponsored by ACRL and Core: Leadership, Infrastructure, Futures. The award is funded from an endowment established to honor Hugh C. Atkinson. Section Awards CJCLS EBSCO Community College Learning Resources Leadership Award Recipient: Yumi Shin, coordinator of reference and access services at Lamar State College-Port Arthur. Sponsored by EBSCO Information Services, the $750 award recognizes outstanding achievement in community college leadership. Shin was selected for her commitment to leadership both within her library and in the library community, and her efforts in pursuing a grant to explore ways to get dual-credit high school students involved in their college library through new technology and services. CJCLS EBSCO Community College Learning Resources Program Award Recipients: Anjali Parasnis-Samar and Alice Wilson, both of Monroe Community College, for their Col- lege Researcher Badging Program. Sponsored by EBSCO Information Services, the $750 award rec- ognizes outstanding achievement in community col- lege programming. The program, made up of a series of missions that each result in a badge and culminate in a researcher certificate, expands information lit- eracy access and has become even more essential in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. DOLS Routledge Distance Learning Librarian- ship Conference Sponsorship Award Recipient: Natalie Haber, online services librarian at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga. Spon- sored by Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group, the award provides a $1,200 conference sponsorship to honor any individual ACRL member working in the field of, or contributing to the success of, distance learning librarianship or related library ser- vice in higher education. Haber was selected for her significant contributions to distance librarianship through continued service, scholarship, and leader- ship, including the creation of a worksheet allowing librarians to map their institutions’ distance library service to the ACRL Standards for Distance Learn- ing Library Services. EBSS Distinguished Education and Behavioral Sciences Librarian Award Recipient: Kaya van Beynen, associate dean of li- brary research and instruction at the University of South Florida. Sponsored by the American Psy- chological Association, the $2,500 award honors a distinguished academic librarian who has made an outstanding contribution as an education and/or behavioral sciences librarian through accomplish- ments and service to the profession. Van Beynen was selected for her decade-long service to EBSS, strong record of scholarship, and successful implementation of exemplary programs. IS Miriam Dudley Instruction Librarian Award Recipient: Nicole Pagowsky, associate research and learning librarian and information literacy instruc- tion program manager at the University of Arizona. Sponsored by ACRL’s Instruction Section (IS), the $1,000 award recognizes an individual librarian for significant contributions to the advancement of instruction in a college or research library environ- April 2021 C&RL News167 ment. Pagowsky was selected for spearheading the Critical Library and Pedagogy Symposium and the impact her books, Critical Library Pedagogy Hand- book, vol. 1 and 2, have had on the profession. IS Innovation Award Recipients: Alexandria Chisholm and Sarah Hart- man-Caverly, reference and instruction librarians at Penn State-Berks, for their Digital Shred Privacy Literacy Initiative project. Sponsored by EBSCO In- formation Services, the $3,000 award honors librar- ians who have implemented innovative approaches to information literacy at their respective institutions or in their communities. The project demonstrated a high level of innovation with particular focus on privacy literacy and includes lesson plans that may be adapted at other institutions. IS Ilene F. Rockman Instruction Publication of the Year Award Recipients: Alison J. Head, Barbara Fister, and Margy MacMillan for their report “Information Literacy in the Age of Algorithms: Student Experiences with News and Information, and the Need for Change,” published in 2020 by the Project Information Lit- eracy Research Institute. Sponsored by Carrick En- terprises, the $1,000 award recognizes an outstand- ing publication related to instruction in a library environment that was published in the last two years. The report was selected for conveying the im- portance of teaching algorithmic literacy in modern information literacy education. PPIRS Marta Lange/SAGE-CQ Press Award Recipient: Jill Severn, archivist and head of access and outreach at the University of Georgia and direc- tor of the Russell Forum for Civic Life in Georgia. Sponsored by SAGE-CQ Press, the $1,000 award recognizes a librarian who has made distinguished contributions to bibliography and information ser- vice in law or political science. The Special Collec- tions Faculty Fellowship Program at the University of Georgia, started by Severn, serves as a model for how archival collections can be introduced into po- litical science education. STS Oberly Award for Bibliography in the Agri- cultural or Natural Sciences Recipients: Jen Kirk, government information librar- ian at Utah State University, and Helen F. Smith, agricultural sciences librarian at Pennsylvania State University, for their work “An Inventory of Pub- lished Soil Surveys of the United States.” Funded by the Eunice Rockwood Oberly endowment and given in odd-numbered years, the award recognizes the best English-language bibliography in the field of agriculture or a related science. Kirk and Smith’s work makes soil surveys, which provide rich histori- cal data, easily discoverable to researchers and general users. ULS Outstanding Professional Development Award Recipients: Nimisha Bhat, Hailley Fargo, Chelsea Heinbach, and Charissa Powell, members of the editorial team for the professional development blog LibParlor. Sponsored by Library Juice Academy, the $1,000 award recognizes librarians, archivists, or cu- rators whose contributions to providing professional development opportunities for librarians have been especially noteworthy or influential. The team was selected for their efforts to create and promote an online community of practice for librarians. WGSS Award for Career Achievement in Women & Gender Studies Librarianship Recipient: Jane Nichols, associate professor and head of the teaching and engagement department at Oregon State University. Sponsored by Duke University Press, the $750 award recognizes an in- dividual librarian for career achievement in the area of women and gender studies librarianship. Nichols was selected for her tireless commitment to women and gender studies, social justice, critical pedagogy, and feminist publishing. WGSS Award for Significant Achievement in Women & Gender Studies Librarianship Recipient: Nicola Andrews, instruction and first-year experience librarian at the University of San Fran- cisco. Sponsored by Duke University Press, the $750 award honors a distinguished academic librarian who has made outstanding contributions to women and gender studies through accomplishments and service to the profession. Andrews was selected for her publication “It’s Not Imposter Syndrome: Resist- ing Self-Doubt as Normal for Library Workers” (In the Library with the Lead Pipe, June 10, 2020).