sept16_b.indd C&RL News September 2016 380 Every year, ACRL celebrates the opportu-nity to honor the outstanding achieve- ments of academic and research librarians across North America. From a community college library’s information literacy team that integrated information literacy tutorials and instruction within many key academic and workforce programs on campus, to the science librarian who bridged the gap between science and the humanities by having students use the walls of the sci- ence library to draw their final projects, to the consortium library effectively support- ing teaching, learning, and research at four different institutions, the innovations of our community have continued to demonstrate the notable impact librarianship has in the academic landscape. Made possible by generous corporate support, the annual presentation of our prestigious awards, grants, and fellowships to these and other deserving individuals and institutions enables ACRL to honor the very best in academic librarianship. This year, ACRL once again seeks to celebrate and recognize the accomplishments of our peers. ACRL members are an integral part of our successful awards program. Please consider acknowledging those who have influenced your thinking, your practice, and your growth as an academic or research librarian. We urge you to nominate colleagues whose work you admire, and whose contributions merit recognition by the profession. Your nominations will ensure that the pool of candidates for each award remains both competitive and distinguished. Complete information about the ACRL awards program, including nomination pro- Chase Ollis ACRL’s 2017 Awards Program Honoring outstanding achievements in academic librarianship Chase Ollis is ACRL program coordinator, email: collis@ ala.org © 2016 Chase Ollis cedures, past winners, criteria, and contacts, is available in the “Awards & Scholarships” section of the ACRL website at www.acrl.org. December 2, 2016, is the deadline for most of the awards to be presented in 2017. A brief description of each award is listed below. Achievement and distinguished service awards • Excellence in Academic Libraries Award (sponsored by YBP Library Services): $3,000 for each type of library award (col- lege, community college, and university). Recognizes academic libraries that are outstanding in furthering the educational missions of their institutions. • Academic/Research Librarian of the Year Award (sponsored by YBP Library Services): $5,000 award. Recognizes an outstanding member of the academic or research library profession. • Hugh C. Atkinson Memorial Award (sponsored by ACRL, Association for Library Collections and Technical Services, Library Leadership and Management Association, Library and Information Technology Asso- ciation: Cash award. Recognizes outstanding achievements (including risk-taking) in the areas of library automation, management, or development and research. • Law and Political Science Section Marta Lange/SAGE-CQ Pr ess Award (sponsored by SAGE-CQ Press): $1,000 award. Recognizes a librarian who has made distinguished contributions to bibliography September 2016 381 C&RL News and informa- tion service in law or politi- cal science. • Miriam D u d l e y I n - s t r u c t i o n L i b r a r i a n Award (ACRL Instruction Sec- tion): $1,000 award. Recog- nizes an indi- vidual librarian for significant contributions t o t h e a d - vancement of instruction in a college or re- search library environment. • Instruc- tion Section Innovation Award (sponsor pending): Honors librarians who have implemented innovative approaches to information literacy at their respective institutions or in their communities. • College Libraries Section Innovation in College Librarianship Award (sponsor pending): Honors librarians who demon- strate a capacity for innovation in working with or serving undergraduates or instructors in the areas of programs, services, and op- erations; or creating innovations for library colleagues that facilitate their ability to better serve the library’s community. • Community College Learning Re- sources Leadership/Library Achievement Awards (sponsored by EBSCO Information Services): $750 for each of two awards rec- ognizing outstanding achievement in library programs or leadership. • Routledge Distance Learning Librari- anship Conference Sponsorship Award (sponsored by Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group): $1,200 conference sponsorship award to honor any individual ACRL mem- ber working in the field of, or contribut- i n g t o t h e success of, dis- tance learning librarianship or related library service in high- er education. • D i s - t i n g u i s h e d E d u c a t i o n and Behav- ioral Scienc- e s L i b r a r - i a n Aw a r d : Honors out- standing con- tributions to e d u c a t i o n a n d b e h a v - ioral sciences librarianship through accomplishments and service to the profession. • Women & Gender Studies Section Award for Career Achievement: Recogniz- es career achievement in the area of women and gender studies librarianship. • Women & Gender Studies Section Award for Significant Achievement: Honors a distinguished academic librarian who has made outstanding contributions to women and gender studies through ac- complishments and service to the profession. • University Libraries Section Outstand- ing Professional Development Award (spon- sored by Library Juice Academy): $1,000 award to recognize librarians, archivists, or curators whose contributions to providing professional development opportunities for librarians have been especially noteworthy or influential. Research awards and grants • WESS-SEES De Gruyter European Librarianship Study Grant (sponsored by the Walter de Gruyter Foundation for Hudson County Community College (HCCC) receiving the 2016 Ex- cellence in Academic Libraries Award. Pictured in foreground: ACRL President Ann Campion Riley and HCCC Associate Dean for College Libraries Carol Van Houten. Pictured in background: Eric Friedman, vice president for academic affairs; Glen Gabert, HCCC president; Patricia Adams, senior collection development manager, YBP Library Services; and Paula P. Pando, vice president for the North Hudson Campus and Student Affairs at HCCC. Photo credit: Jersey Pictures. (continues on page 395) September 2016 395 C&RL News experience, including personal safety. This will continue to be a key concern of our academic libraries. A high proportion of North American universities need to maximize research dollars as well as tuition fee revenues, so our future is also closely connected to our ability to support this increasingly multidis- ciplinary, global, technology-based enter- prise. Shifting resources towards effective research data management and addressing the prohibitive cost of providing access to scholarly content are two big structural challenges that researchers, students, and administrators all want us to solve. Unless we find effective ways to lobby our content providers and legislatures, we will be doing so in an unhelpful copyright and licensing environment. Such issues should be tackled by con- sortia, associations, and ad hoc groups working together at the network level. The Internet provides us unprecedented oppor- tunity to seek out new partnerships, local and international, with those who share our values but achieve them in different ways. We will be better placed to excel if we are a diverse and inclusive profession that has moved beyond the tradition of minimizing our differences and is ready to take its next steps on the difficult but fruitful path to true intercultural competency. Lastly, in order to hold on to the resourc- es granted to us, we need to communicate our value, which is a critical challenge in a world where information is both too cheap and too expensive at the same time. North American academic libraries have no birth- right to their traditional place at the heart of the academy—though I strongly believe they can continue to earn it. Conclusion These insights provided by six librarians represent a snapshot in the world of aca- demic libraries rather than a survey of the field. The similarities and differences en- able us to continue an international conver- sation and reveal areas of needed support and opportunities for collaboration. These insights offer a view from the ground, that exhibit the authors’ experiences with academic libraries and their professional engagement. Scholarship and Research): €2,500 grant supports research in European studies with an emphasis on librarianship, the book trade, resource documentation, and similar information-science related topics. Publications • Katharine Kyes Leab and Daniel J. Leab Exhibition Catalogue Awards (spon- sored by Katharine Kyes Leab and Daniel J. Leab, American Book Prices Current): Recognizes outstanding catalogs published by American or Canadian institutions in con- junction with library exhibitions. Deadline: October 15, 2016. • Ilene F. Rockman Instruction Pub- lication of the Year Award (sponsored by Emerald Group Publishing Limited): $3,000 to recognize an outstanding publication re- lated to instruction in a library environment published in the last two years. • Science and Technology Section Oberly Award for Bibliography in the Agricultural or Natural Sciences: This bi- ennial award is given in odd-numbered years for the best English-language bibliography in the field of agriculture or a related science. If you would like more information about the ACRL 2017 Awards Program, visit the “Awards & Scholarships” section of our website at www.acrl.org or contact ACRL Program Coordinator Chase Ollis at collis@ ala.org. We welcome your nominations and look forward to celebrating achievements in aca- demic librarianship in 2017. (“ACRL’s 2017 Awards Program,” continues from page 381)