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CHICAGO – The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), is pleased to announce that the Andrew G. Truxal Library at Anne Arundel Community College has been chosen to receive the 2015 Community and Junior College Libraries Section (CJCLS) EBSCO Community College Learning Resources Award for its Virtual Writing Center program.

The $750 award and plaque, donated by EBSCO Information Services, will be presented to Jessica Rabin, professor of English and director of the Writing Center, and Janice Lathrop, reference librarian at Anne Arundel Community College, on Friday, June 26, 2015, during the CJCLS Awards Dinner at the 2015 91´«Ã½ Annual Conference in San Francisco.

Developed by Rabin and Lathrop and launched as a pilot in spring 2013, the Virtual Writing Center is an innovative response to data that showed online students had lower persistence and success rates in gateway English courses than students in traditional sections of the same courses. The Center initially served students enrolled in online sections of two English gateway courses; a year later, the program served all students enrolled in online classes. In fall 2014 the Center opened to all students in all classes, regardless of class format, as another way to serve students at their point of need.

The goal of the Center is to provide the same level of support to all students as the Writing Center and Truxal Library provide to students who physically walk through the doors. Writing tutors help students understand basic concepts of writing, which leads students to improve research papers and other written assignments. Librarians teach students how to find, evaluate, and cite sources; they do not complete these tasks for students.

“A targeted program to meet a documented need to support online students, this project supports strategic initiatives of the college and has already shown success,” said award co-chairs Sarah North of the College of Western Idaho and David Wright of Surry Community College. “The partnership between the library and the writing center was innovative, unique, and promoted a model that could be replicated in other colleges.”

Rabin received her B.A. in English from Drew University, and her Certificate in Women’s Studies and Ph.D. in English from Emory University. Lathrop received her B.A. in Anthropology from Georgia State University and her M.S. in Library Science from Simmons College.

For more information regarding the ACRL CJCLS EBSCO Community College Learning Resources Award, or a complete list of past recipients, please visit the of the ACRL website.

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The Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) is the higher education association for librarians. Representing more than 11,500 academic and research librarians and interested individuals, ACRL (a division of the 91´«Ã½) is the only individual membership organization in North America that develops programs, products and services to help academic and research librarians learn, innovate and lead within the academic community. Founded in 1940, ACRL is committed to advancing learning and transforming scholarship. ACRL is on the Web at , Facebook at and Twitter at .