Winners of 2019 Federal Library/Information Centers of the Year & 2019 Federal Librarian of the Year Announced

From FEDLINK:

The Federal Library and Information Network (FEDLINK) has announced the winners of its national awards for federal librarianship, which recognize the many innovative ways that federal libraries, librarians and library technicians fulfill the information demands of the government, business, and scholarly communities and the American public.

Federal libraries and staff throughout the United States and abroad competed for the awards. The Fiscal Year 2019 winners list is below. The award winners will be honored for their contributions to federal library and information service throughout the year.

2019 Federal Library/Information Centers of the Year

Large Library/Information Center (with a staff of 11 or more federal and/or contract employees): D’Azzo Research Library (DRL), Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is recognized for increasing information access and outreach to students and faculty of the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT), engineers and scientists of the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and the global research community. In fiscal year 2019, the library launched its institutional repository, AFIT Scholar, a single, central, searchable database and delivered 36,850 thesis and dissertation downloads to 2,486 institutions in 166 countries. Working with AFRL and base contracting, the organizations collaborated to purchase more than 23 databases and journal collections, saving more than $382,000. On-site, a staff of 13 responded to 5,612 reference requests and taught 36 academic research classes to 532 participants while completing a library space reconfiguration that increased visits by 8 percent.

Small Library/Information Center (with a staff of 10 or fewer federal and/or contract employees): Bureau of Land Management Library (BLM), Denver, Colorado, is recognized for creativity in improving the user experience, facilitating access to research and developing solutions and virtual collections to increase library use. In fiscal year 2019, BLM Library implemented a journal link resolver to identify sought-after resources in a growing collection of digitized documents and relevant journals and a website that includes the Library’s catalog, electronic journal holdings and digitized collections. The library spearheaded an initiative to preserve historic and rare bureau documents and created a searchable collection of 833 of its directives from 1964 to 1995 — comprising more than 31,000 files and 250,000 pages — and a growing historical photo archive.

2019 Federal Librarian of the Year

Greta Marlatt, outreach and academic support manager, Dudley Knox Library, Naval Postgraduate, Monterey, California, is recognized for furthering data science research and education in support of the combat effectiveness of the naval service. She provided instruction to Defense Analysis, National Security, the Center for Homeland Defense and Security and the Institute for Global Security, and taught a number of citation management courses and bibliographic instruction. In fiscal year 2019, Marlatt headed an important library renovation and collection relocation space-planning effort to remove barriers to collections, people and services while creating learner-centered physical and virtual spaces. She managed $2 million in library acquisitions, curated more than 30 LibGuides in the areas of congressional information, area studies, military information and conflict and security studies, and responded to 750 off-desk reference questions.

2019 Federal Library Technician of the Year

Gabriele Davis, library technician, U.S. Army Garrison Rheinland Pfalz Libraries, Kaiserslautern, Germany, is recognized for her strategic knowledge management, technical expertise and dedicated customer service. In fiscal year 2019, Davis was solely responsible for cataloging and retrospective cataloging of the library collection of the Parent & Professional Educational Resource Center collection for 10 child & youth services facilities and expanded early literacy and makerspace programming at the garrison’s Morale, Welfare and Recreation (MWR) Libraries. She also supported interlibrary loan services to 16 other European Army libraries and Air Force post libraries. Unofficially known throughout MWR libraries in Europe as “the fastest cataloger in the West,” Davis cataloged or modified up to 1,300 records a month while providing direct circulation desk coverage at two libraries and supporting library programming for more than 1,000 programs.

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Filed under: Academic Libraries, Associations and Organizations, Awards, Data Files, Government Libraries, Libraries, Management and Leadership, News, Open Access