School of Information Studies to present first 21st-Century Librarian Award

School of Information Studies to present first 21st-Century Librarian AwardOctober 12, 2001SU News ServicesSUnews@syr.edu

The School of Information Studies will present the first 21st-Century Librarian Award to Richard Chabran, director of the Communities for Virtual Research (CVR) at the University of California, Riverside, during a luncheon Oct. 19 at the Genesee Inn.

The invitation-only event is expected to draw alumni and librarians from across the country as well as the school’s faculty and students. In addition to receiving the award, Chabran will give a short presentation about librarianship in the 21st-Century. The program will also include a presentation by students in the Master of Library Science Program (M.L.S.), who will highlight the wide range of contemporary librarian practice that was represented by the more than 90 people who were nominated for the 2001 award.

The 21st-Century Librarian Award is a project of the students in the M.L.S. Program. A student committee established the criteria for the award program, solicited nominations and selected the winner. The students also set up a Web site for the awards (http://istweb.syr.edu/librarianaward) through which the entire 250-member M.L.S. student body (on-campus and distance learning students) was invited to vote on six finalists.

The $5,000 award was established a year ago to recognize the role librarians play in shaping the new information environment that is emerging on a global scale.

The award will be presented annually to leaders in the field who are actively involved in shaping the organizational, social and technological transition to the increasingly digital library in a variety of areas, including social awareness, ethics of service, access to information, technology implementation and scholarly communication and information dissemination.

“The award competition is a way for our M.L.S. students to gain an understanding of the best in 21st-century library practice,” says Jana Bradley, director of the M.L.S. Program. “The individuals who were nominated are leaders in the evolution of the library profession. The field of nominees was stellar.”

Kizer Walker G’01 (M.L.S.), chair of the 2001 21st-Century Librarian Award committee, says the students were very excited about the selection of Chabran for the award. “He has worked in a number of spheres to increase access to information on the part of scholars and in the broader public,” Walker says. “He is very active in promoting the library’s role in the new information environment. The selection process gave the school’s M.L.S. students an opportunity to define what it means to be a 21st-Century librarian based on the actual practice of people in the real world.”

The chair of the 2002 21st-Century Librarian Award committee is Kelly Black, a library science graduate student. Information about the award is available on the Web site.