CHICAGO – Every year, the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) celebrates the opportunity to honor the outstanding achievements of academic and research librarians across North America. Made possible by generous corporate support, the annual presentation of ACRL’s awards, grants, and fellowships enables ACRL to honor the very best in academic librarianship. This year, ACRL once again seeks to celebrate and recognize the accomplishments of its peers.

Members are an integral part of ACRL’s successful awards program. ACRL urges members to nominate colleagues whose work has influenced their thinking and growth as an academic librarian, and whose contributions merit recognition by the profession. Member nominations will ensure that the pool of candidates for each award remains both competitive and distinguished. Nominations and supporting materials for most awards must be submitted by December 2, 2016.

Outstanding achievement and distinguished service awards are:

• (sponsored by YBP Library Services), recognizes academic libraries that are outstanding in furthering the educational missions of their institutions. A $3,000 award is given for each type of library (e.g. college, community college, and university).
• (sponsored by YBP Library Services), awards $5,000 and recognizes an outstanding member of the academic or research library profession.
• (sponsored by ACRL, ALCTS, LLAMA and LITA), provides a cash award and recognizes outstanding achievements (including risk-taking) in the areas of library automation, management, development and research.
• (sponsored by SAGE-CQ Press), provides a $1,000 award and recognizes a librarian who has made distinguished contributions to bibliography and information service in law or political science.
• (sponsored by the ACRL Instruction Section), provides a $1,000 award and recognizes an individual librarian for significant contributions to the advancement of instruction in a college or research library environment.
• (sponsored by EBSCO Information Services), provides a $3,000 award and honors librarians who have implemented innovative approaches to information literacy at their respective institutions or in their communities.
• (sponsor pending), honors librarians who demonstrate a capacity for innovation in working with or serving undergraduates or instructors in the areas of programs, services, and operations; or creating innovations for library colleagues that facilitate their ability to better serve the library’s community.
• (sponsored by EBSCO Information Services), provides a $750 award and recognizes outstanding achievement in library programs at a community college.
• (sponsored by EBSCO Information Services), provides a $750 award and recognizes outstanding achievement in library leadership at a community college.
• (sponsored by Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group), provides a $1,200 conference sponsorship award to honor any individual ACRL member working in the field of, or contributing to the success of, distance learning librarianship or related library service in higher education.
• , recognizes an individual librarian for career achievement in the area of women and gender studies librarianship.
• , honors a distinguished academic librarian who has made outstanding contributions to women and gender studies through accomplishments and service to the profession.
• , (sponsored by Library Juice Academy): $1,000 award to recognize librarians, archivists or curators whose contributions to providing professional development opportunities for librarians have been especially noteworthy or influential.