2019
Nicole Pagowsky and the Critical Librarianship and Pedagogy Symposium received a Special Certificate of Recognition and Appreciation. Nicole initiated the Symposium in 2017, which takes place at the University of Arizona. The committee that organized the Symposium for the previous two years includes: Scott Buchanan, Jessica Calderwood, Jen Nichols, Anthony Sanchez, Maribeth Slebodnik, and Niamh Wallace. The certificate is in recognition of the contribution that the Symposium makes in building community among librarians interested in recognizing and critiquing power structures inherent in information practices, and in library professionals’ work as educators. Addressing an immensely important and timely issue in librarianship, the Critical Librarianship and Pedagogy Symposium provides a much needed space for library professionals to explore critical pedagogy and how it may inform their efforts in academic libraries and in higher education.
Brad Sietz, Director of LOEX, received a Special Certificate of Recognition and Appreciation for his dedicated work organizing the annual LOEX Conference and as editor of the LOEX Quarterly. The LOEX Conference is a premier venue for the instruction librarian community and has made a huge impact on the work of information literacy for librarians around the world by providing space for us to share ideas, ask difficult teaching and learning questions, and to get to know one another often leading to new collaborations and projects. LOEX Quarterly and LOEX Currents are must-reads for librarians to keep up-to-date on new and best practices in higher education and libraries, provides a venue for librarians to publish their ideas in pedagogy, as well as check out the current job ads. Brad has also be active in the Instruction Section for many years as an ex-officio member of the IS Advisory group, where he has shared his knowledge and perspective including participation in the discussions sponsored by the IS Discussion Group Steering Committee.
2009
The 2009 Instruction Section Program honored a unique contribution to the field of information literacy: Stewart Brower and Christopher Hollister, editors and cofounders of the journal Communications in Information Literacy, received the ACRL Instruction Section Special Certificate of Recognition and Appreciation. This semiannual journal, launched in 2007, is dedicated to advancing knowledge, theory, and research in the area of information literacy. In honor of their pioneering work, Brower and Hollister received a plaque that stated:
In recognition of Stewart Brower and Christopher Hollister for launching Communications in Information Literacy, the first born-digital, open-access peer reviewed journal devoted entirely to information literacy.
Brower is director of the University of Oklahoma at Tulsa Library, and Hollister is information literacy librarian for the University at Buffalo’s Arts and Sciences Libraries. Committed to the principles of information literacy as set forth by the Association of College and Research Libraries, Communications in Information Literacy serves as an academic model for viable, sustainable open access publishing. Communications in Information Literacy is available at http://www.comminfolit.org/index.php/cil/index. The IS Program took place at the ALA Annual Conference, Sunday, July 12, 3:30-5:30 p.m., in the Williford Room of the Chicago Hilton. Following the awards presentations, the program featured the interactive panel discussion “Illuminating New Instruction Research: Applying Research to Practice.”
1998
Barbara Wittkopf, editor of Research Strategies: a Journal of Library Concepts and Instruction, from 1990 through 1997, received a special certificate of recognition and appreciation during the IS Program at the 1998 ALA Annual Conference in Washington, DC. The certificate, which was awarded jointly by the ACRL Instruction Section (IS) and the ALA Library Instruction Round Table (LIRT), recognized Barbara’s leadership in directing Research Strategies through years of phenomenal growth and development within our discipline. As the primary journal devoted to library instruction, Research Strategies has fostered the development of our knowledge base by disseminating over one hundred articles and seventy columns on theoretical and applied instruction research. Barbara’s vision expressed in her editorials over the years has influenced the thinking of instruction practitioners worldwide. IS and LIRT invited people to the IS Program during the 1998 ALA Annual Conference in Washington, DC to recognize Barbara’s contributions through the presentation of this special certificate.
1996
Martin Raish, creator and moderator of the Bibliographic Instruction Listserv (BI-L), received a special certificate of recognition and appreciation at the 1996 ALA Annual Conference in New York. The certificate, awarded jointly by the ACRL Instruction Section (IS) and the ALA Library Instruction Round Table (LIRT), recognized Dr. Raish’s critical contribution to over 2300 subscribers worldwide. The focus of BI-L is on library instruction, with substantive discussions, requests for advice and handouts, reports on activities, new programs, and new classrooms, and postings of job vacancies and conferences. LIRT and IS acknowledged his firm, yet gentle management of the list as one that all moderators would do well to emulate.
