May 10, 2016 FEDLINK Announces Annual Awards for Federal Librarianship

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 government, business and scholarly communities and the American public.

FEDLINK will honor the 2015 award winners at the FEDLINK Spring Exposition on May 10, 2016, at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. The names of the winners will remain on permanent display in the FEDLINK offices at the Library of Congress.

Federal libraries and staff throughout the United States and abroad competed for the awards. The winners are listed below.

2015 Federal Library/Information Centers of the Year

Large Library/Information Center (with a staff of 11 or more federal and/or contract employees): The National Library of Education, Washington, D.C., is recognized for its leadership role in delivering customer-oriented solutions to information challenges, innovative outreach, bibliometrics, and service as a curator of information and historical materials. Library staff developed 52 web portals (one for each state, plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico) with more than 2,000 vetted links to state and federal sites combined with RSS newsfeeds and dynamic literature searches. In collaboration with the National Center for Education Statistics, the library also employed new bibliometric tools to capture 3,568 unique citations of department data in scholarly psychology, medical and educational literature. Customer outreach efforts resulted in significant increases in requests from the agency and from the public over the prior fiscal year. The library also created a shared services model by collaborating with the Research Office of the National Endowment for the Arts to create a virtual library for the endowment.

Small Library/Information Center (with a staff of 10 or fewer federal and/or contract employees): Knowledge Information Service (KIS) of the New England Veterans Integrated Service Network 1 (VISN1), Manchester, New Hampshire, is recognized for creating a successful 21st century library model to deliver VISN-wide information at the point of need in support of veterans’ care, clinical research and training. KIS minimized aggregate costs (saving more than $685,000) while expanding access to library resources via its online Knowledge Library, available both onsite and offsite in the six New England states. Implementing a consolidated administrative model, KIS enabled medical and clinical librarians to delve deeper into the challenging, changing needs of clinical staff to support 13,500 healthcare workers serving 260,000 veterans. The nine KIS staff offered clinical rounding with residents, updated systematic reviews, participated in 30 hospital committees, and held six information resource fairs attended by more than 300 Veterans Administration healthcare providers.

2015 Federal Library Technician of the Year

Paul Darr, Library Technician, Defense Language Institute English Language Center (DLIELC), Joint Base San Antonio Lackland, Texas, is recognized for his outstanding level of service to more than 3,200 students and faculty. His efforts have contributed to the library’s book circulation rollover of 2.9 percent per year, and he has streamlined circulation procedures to enhance timely customer service. Darr’s contributions in the information technology arena include expert troubleshooting of automated library systems, streamlining efforts to develop websites, and supporting a variety of desktop, peripheral and handheld devices. Through his efforts, 10 online catalog stations remained operational during times of peak usage. He has been invaluable in providing new and additional resources for the center’s unique customer base and his easygoing manner puts students as ease when struggling to communicate in a new language they are learning.

For the latest information on the awards, please see the FEDLINK website.

The Federal Library and Information Network is an organization of federal agencies working together to achieve optimum use of the resources and facilities of federal libraries and information centers by promoting common services, coordinating and sharing available resources, and providing continuing professional education for federal library and information staff. FEDLINK serves as a forum for discussion of the policies, programs, procedures and technologies that affect federal libraries and the information services they provide to their agencies, to the Congress, to the federal courts and to the American people.