ASCLA 2005 Award Recipients
ASCLA Exceptional Service Award
The Queens Library (NY) is the 2005 recipient of the ASCLA Exceptional Service Award for its New Americans Program (NAP) LSTA grant project “Bringing the Mountain.” A collaborative grant project, it provides materials to inmates under custody of the New York State Department of Correctional Services who do not read either English or Spanish. (Right to left: Lambert Shell, Liana Alaverdova, Maureen O'Connor, Fred Gitner, William Jefferson, and Thomas W. Galante.)The ASCLA Exceptional Service Award is a citation to recognize exceptional service to patients and inmates; the homebound; medical, nursing and other professional staff in hospitals; and inmates, as well as to recognize professional leadership, effective interpretation of programs, pioneering activity and significant research.
“The Queens Library’s ‘Bringing the Mountain’ LSTA grant project, part of the New American Program, presents an innovative multicultural, multilingual library service to inmates in the New York State Department of Correctional Services not found in such diversity elsewhere,” stated Barratt Wilkins, ASCLA awards committee chair. “The New American Program presents an exciting and relevant library service program to 8,320 foreign-born inmates from 123 countries, whose languages include Chinese, Haitian Creole, Russian, Italian, Arabic, Korean, French.” (See poster below.)
ASCLA Leadership Achievement Award 
The Library Development Bureau of the New Jersey State Library, Trenton, is the 2005 recipient of ASCLA Leadership Achievement Award, a citation presented to recognize leadership and achievement in consulting, multi-type library cooperation and state library development. The award recognizes sustained activity that has been characterized by professional growth and effectiveness and has enhanced the status of these areas of activity.“The Library Development Bureau of the New Jersey State Library has transformed itself into a dynamic, exciting, and enthusiastic service component which has initiated many new programs important to the state’s libraries,” stated Barratt Wilkins, ASCLA awards committee chair. “The Bureau is to be commended for its infectious enthusiasm and group dynamic illustrated in their innovative programs.”
Wilkins added, “The Library Development Bureau of the New Jersey State Library has a new staff and the freedom to develop services much needed by libraries in the state. It has brought forth a renaissance of innovation for New Jersey libraries and programs.” (Kathleen Moeller-Peiffer, Peggy Cadigan, and Jeffrey Kesper, Director.)
ASCLA Professional Achievement Award
No award was given this year.ASCLA Service Award
Marilyn Irwin, director, Center for Disability Information and Referral, Indiana Institute on Disability and Community and associate professor, School of Library and Information Science, Indiana University, Indianapolis, (Ind.), is the 2005 recipient of the ASCLA Service Award, which is a citation presented to recognize an ASCLA personal member for sustained leadership and exceptional service through participation in activities that have enhanced the stature, reputation and overall strength of ASCLA, as well as representation of ALA."Dr. Marilyn Irwin has been a tireless advocate for making information accessible to people with disabilities and is a national leader in service to people with disabilities," stated Barratt Wilkins, ASCLA award committee chair. "Her service has been exemplary to the Association of Specialized and Cooperative Library Agencies and is to be commended." Wilkins added, "Dr. Irwin has served ASCLA as Division Councilor on the governing Council of the American Library Association, as Chair of the Library Service to Developmentally Disabled Persons Membership Activity Group, and as chair of the Subcommittee to Develop Guidelines for Library Service to People with Mental Retardation. In 2004, she introduced and helped pass a resolution through Council requiring ALA to employ only accessible information technology."
ASCLA National Organization on Disability Award
Johnson County Library, Shawnee Mission (Kan.), is the 2005 recipient of the ASCLA/KLAS/NOD Award, for its “Literature for the Learning Disabled Adult” program. Donated by Keystone Systems, Inc., the $1,000 award and certificate is given to a library organization that has provided services for people with disabilities. (Donna Lauffer, Diane Sinclair (for C. J. Sullivan), and Andrea Ewing Callicutt (Keystone Systems))“The ‘Literature for the Learning Disabled Adult’ program of the Johnson County Library represents a model demonstration of a collaborative effort to provide meaningful participation in literary and educational program,” stated Barratt Wilkins, ASCLA award committee chair. “Working with the local community college, a non-profit agency serving seniors, and the county’s developmental supports unit, the coordinator, C.J. Sullivan, provides reminiscing programs, poetry classes, and current events programming to adults with learning disabilities and it is to be commended.”
Francis Joseph Campbell Award
Judith M. Dixon, consumer relations officer, and Wells B. Kormann, chief, Materials Development Division, of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS), Library of Congress, are the recipients of the 2005 Francis Joseph Campbell Award. The honor, which consists of a citation and medal, is presented to a library or person who has made an outstanding contribution to the advancement of library service for the blind and physically handicapped. The Library Service to People with Visual or Physical Disabilities Forum, of the Libraries Serving Special Populations Section of the ASCLA, presents the award. (Photo: Rahye Puckett (committee rep), Judith Dixon, and Margo, her canine companion.)
“Judith Dixon has been an advocate for access to printed information through the widest possible use of special formats-tape, Braille, large print adaptive technology, the Internet, e-books digital audio and emerging technologies,” said Barbara Mates, Francis Joseph Campbell award committee member on behalf of the chair. “She truly exemplifies the mission of access, empowerment, and advocacy.”
“Wells Kormann was selected for the crucial role he played in establishing groundwork for the digital future of talking books and for his innate ability to work with a large and diverse national volunteer force for the good of the program,” said Mates. “He has the unique ability to squeeze the most out of time and money for the betterment of the program.” More information on Kormann.
ASCLA Century Scholarship
Ivan Murillo is the 2005 recipient of the Century Scholarship, a diversity initiative aimed at promoting the ALA's mission of improving service at the local level through the development of a representative workforce that reflects the communities served by all libraries in the new millennium. The Century Scholarship is a $2,500 monetary award given annually to a student or students pursuing a degree in library and information science.“Ivan's selection as the 2005 recipient fulfills the scholarship endowment's continuing efforts to increase the recruitment of people with disabilities to become members of a diverse library profession able to understand, connect, and serve the diverse communities that are using America's public, academic, and special libraries today,” stated Simon Healey, Century Scholarship Jury Committee Chair. “I am certain that Ivan's prior advocacy work on behalf of the underserved populations, participating in state library association activities, and conviction that the library profession must reach out to communities, including those composed of people with unobserved disabilities, will help ASCLA to achieve it's goal to actively recruit, mentor, and help hire people with disabilities to become members of the library profession.”