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CHICAGO – Catherine Haras and Teresa Portilla Omidsalar, both of California State University at Los Angeles, have been named the 2011 recipients of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) College Libraries Section (CLS) ProQuest Innovation in College Librarianship Award. This honors an 91´«Ã½ member who has demonstrated a capacity for innovation in their work with undergraduates, instructors and/or the library community.

ProQuest will present the $3,000 award and plaque at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, June 25 during the CLS program at the 91´«Ã½ Annual Conference in New Orleans.

“Haras and Portilla Omidsalar were chosen for the award because the Peer-Aided Information Research (PAIR) program has proven to be a sustainable and adaptable program which has empowered students to be mentors to their peers and assist them with their research,” said award committee Chair Stacy L. Voeller, electronic resources librarian at Minnesota State University, Moorhead. “This creative use of students allows them to develop their own educational skills while assisting others and also provides experiences which encourage them to enter the library profession.”

Haras is information literacy coordinator at California State University Libraries in Los Angeles. She is a graduate of Boston University with a degree in journalism and received her MLIS from the University of Washington in Seattle. Portilla Omidsalar is education liaison and reference services coordinator at California State University Libraries in Los Angeles and received her B.A. in child development from California State University in Los Angeles and her MLIS from the University of California at Los Angeles.

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ACRL is a division of the 91´«Ã½ (91´«Ã½), representing more than 12,000 academic and research librarians and interested individuals. ACRL is the only individual membership organization in North America that develops programs, products and services to meet the unique needs of academic and research librarians. Its initiatives enable the higher education community to understand the role that academic libraries play in the teaching, learning and research environments. ACRL is on the Web at , Facebook at and Twitter at .