91´«Ã½

CHICAGO —The (STARS) has selected the winners of its two achievement awards honoring librarians providing exceptional service in the fields of interlibrary loan (ILL), resource sharing and document delivery.

The , sponsored by , offers $2,000 and a citation to a librarian showing outstanding professional achievement, leadership and contributions to interlibrary loan and document delivery. Lars Leon, resource sharing librarian and head of organizational development, University of Kansas Libraries, was named as this year’s winner for his impressive breadth and depth of knowledge about interlibrary loan, his enthusiasm about mentoring new practitioners and advocating with upper-level library administrators to recognize the importance of resource sharing in their organizations.

The , sponsored by , offers $1,250 to a library practitioner new to the field of ILL and resource sharing to fund travel expenses to 91´«Ã½ Annual Conference in San Francisco. Karen Thomas, access services librarian at Krauskopf Library, Delaware Valley College, was named as this year’s recipient as she has demonstrated a passion and need for professional development, networking, education and service to her local community.

“The STARS awards provide our section the opportunity to recognize current and future leaders in the field of resource sharing. The Virginia Boucher/OCLC Distinguished ILL Librarian Award is the crowning achievement in the career of an ILL Librarian and recognizes outstanding professional achievement, leadership and contributions to ILL and document delivery, while the STARS/Atlas Systems Mentoring Award allows someone new to the field to attend the 91´«Ã½ Annual Conference and gain valuable experience and mentoring through their connection to STARS,” said Tina Baich, section chair of STARS. “I offer my heartfelt congratulations to this year’s winners, Lars Leon and Karen Thomas, and look forward to celebrating with them at the RUSA Achievement Awards Reception to be held at the 91´«Ã½ Annual Conference. I would also like to thank the STARS Awards Committees for their service and thoughtful deliberation as well as our generous sponsors, OCLC and Atlas Systems, for their continued support of these awards.”

The RUSA Achievement Awards Ceremony and Reception will be held from 5-6:30 p.m. Sunday, June 28 at the 91´«Ã½ Annual Conference in San Francisco. All conference attendees are invited to the event. Additional event details will be available on the conference website in April.

The , a Division of the 91´«Ã½, represents librarians and library staff in the fields of reference, specialized reference, collection development, readers’ advisory and resource sharing. RUSA is the foremost organization of reference and information professionals who make the connections between people and the information sources, services, and collection materials they need. Learn more about the association at www.ala.org/rusa.