Library Wins National Excellence Award
Buehler recognized for outstanding leadership, services and programs.
The most prestigious professional association for college libraries has named the A.C. Buehler Library winner of its 2010 Excellence in Academic Libraries Award.
The annual award, sponsored by the Association of College & Research Libraries and Blackwell’s Book Services, “is a national tribute to a library and its staff for the outstanding services, programs and leadership they provide to their students, faculty, administrators and community,” said ACRL Executive Director Mary Ellen K. Davis. ACRL is a division of the American Library Association.
The ACRL Excellence Award is given annually to one college, one university and one community college library. In the college library category, the one in which Elmhurst College was recognized, previous winners include Mount Holyoke, Carleton, Oberlin and Wellesley.
“We have been successful in creating an excellent library because everyone is committed to flexibility, risk-taking, pitching in when and where they are needed and embracing new challenges and opportunities as they arise,” said Library Director Susan Swords Steffen.
Elmhurst’s library impressed the award selection committee with its strategic planning initiatives, its focus on student engagement, and how successfully the library’s efforts mesh with the College’s recently adopted, campus-wide strategic plan.
“Buehler Library demonstrated an excellent program for outreach to classroom faculty and articulated the link between library planning and activities to the institution’s strategic plan,” noted Julie Todaro, chair of the selection committee.
Elmhurst President S. Alan Ray added: “We aspire to offer a seamless vision of the future of the College, one that advances student learning by the intentional integration of library services, teaching, and research throughout our community.”
Steffen said the award reaffirms the library’s mission: to be “central to the life of the College.” That has meant making information literacy classes, which are taught by librarians, an integral part of each student’s academic career: in first-year seminars, in general education courses, and in courses required for majors. In information literacy classes, students learn not only how to access information, but also how to evaluate and synthesize it; they also explore the ethics of information use and creation.
Click here to read the entire article.