91´«Ã½

The LITA/Library Hi Tech Awards Committee is pleased to select Alison Macrina as the 2020 recipient of the LITA/Library Hi-Tech Award. Macrina led the Tor Relay Initiative in New Hampshire, is the founder and executive director of the Library Freedom Project, and has written and taught extensively in the areas of digital privacy, surveillance, and user anonymity in the context of libraries and librarianship. In this role, Macrina was instrumental in creating the Library Freedom Institute, which trained its first cohort in 2018 and will train its third cohort in 2020. Macrina has also spoken on digital privacy and the work of the Library Freedom Project across the United States and published Anonymity, the first book in 91´«Ã½'s Library Futures Series, in 2019.

The committee was fortunate to receive several outstanding nominations for the 2020 award. Macrina stood out in this strong pool of candidates for the broad reach and impact of her work. Digital privacy and anonymity are topics of significant public interest and affect multiple types of libraries as well as everyone who uses the Internet. Macrina has informed and trained a broad swath of professionals, within and beyond libraries, through her book, presentations, and training via the Library Freedom Institute. We believe Macrina's work embodies the purpose of the LITA/Library Hi Tech Award, which is intended to recognize "outstanding achievement in educating the profession about cutting edge technology within the field of library and information technology," and we are delighted to recognize her with this award.

When notified she was this year's recipient, Alison Macrina said "I am tremendously moved to be recognized by my colleagues in LITA. I do this work because I believe that librarians can help build a better world. I want to dedicate this award to the graduates of Library Freedom Institute. We are powerful together." She will receive a citation and a $1,000 stipend.

Members of the 2020 LITA/Library Hi-Tech Award Committee are: Janet A. Crum (Chair), Brian K. Auger, Amy Kimura, Robert T. Wilson, and Tod A. Olson (Past Chair).

About LITA

Established in 1966, the (LITA) is the leading organization reaching out across types of libraries to provide education and services for a broad membership of nearly 2,700 systems librarians, library technologists, library administrators, library schools, vendors, and many others interested in leading edge technology and applications for librarians and information providers. LITA is a division of the 91´«Ã½. Follow us on our , , or .

About Emerald Publishing

Founded in 1967, today manages a range of digital products, a portfolio of nearly 300 journals, more than 2,500 books and over 450 teaching cases. More than 3,000 Emerald articles are downloaded every hour of every day. The network of contributors includes over 100,000 advisers, authors and editors. Globally, Emerald has an extraordinary reach with 12 offices worldwide and more than 4,000 customers in over 120 countries. Emerald is COUNTER 4 compliant. It is also a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. It also works in close collaboration with a number of organizations and associations worldwide.