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of Illinois at Chicago Office of Public Affairs (MC 288)
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| February 23, 2000 | Contact: Amanda Mazur (312) 996-7681, amazur@uic.edu |
UIC LIBRARIAN EARNS PRESTIGIOUS NATIONAL AWARD
Sharon Hogan, University Librarian at the University of Illinois at Chicago, has been named Academic/Research Librarian of the Year by the Association of College and Research Libraries.
This award recognizes an outstanding member of the library profession who has made a significant national or international contribution to academic or research librarianship and library development.
"Sharon Hogan is a leader in the current transformation of libraries into information retrieval systems, an intellectual leader among library deans and information technology directors, and a true scholar," said Provost Elizabeth Hoffman.
The award committee that selected Hogan stated that she is "a dedicated and devoted leader of the world community of academic librarians. Her generous and broadly inclusive vision of the library's role in higher education serves as an inspiration to all of us."
"I am both honored and humbled at receiving this award," says Hogan. "Giants in the world of academic librarians have received this award before me."
Nationally, Hogan has testified on policy development standards with respect to using electronic information within a library setting, copyright issues and computer licensing. She has been a strong voice for higher education in the development of national copyright legislation.
A love of reading and working in her high school's library helped guide Hogan into a career in library sciences. When she first graduated, there were no women serving as directors of academic research libraries.
Hogan has served as a model and mentor for other women interested in pursuing a career in library sciences. She initiated a program to help minority staff earn a library degree at the University of Illinois at Champaign/Urbana while maintaining their UIC positions. Hogan also began a library associates program in which participants spend two years learning how to work in research libraries and are given help locating a job upon program completion.
Hogan believes it is important to integrate all aspects of the library into the university, with the library staff helping all departments with teaching and research. The staff is currently working with UIC faculty to develop training modules and online classes. Hogan is also working with UIC's College of Medicine to develop and implement evidenced-based medicine principles for the medical school curriculum.
"While at UIC, Sharon has modernized the management of the library and the delivery of library services," says Hoffman. "She successfully brought academic computing and telecommunications under library responsibility."
Hogan and her staff have experimented in using non-traditional management techniques to improve the organization and workings of the library. Most libraries are set up in a traditional management structure of buying and cataloging books and journals. The problems libraries are facing today, such as licensing electronic journals and cataloging and tracking of electronic information, do not fall into traditional ways of managing a library. Hogan has implemented new ways to handle these changes and adapted a user-friendly process for both library patron and staff.
"As technology changes, we must be flexible. The old structure is too rigid to accommodate the new technologies," says Hogan. "We still use the old structure, but we now manage it differently so it becomes part of the new digital library system."
Hogan plans to increase library resources on biotechnology and data sets, as well as coordinate a common strategic vision between the libraries on the east and west sides of campus. Hogan would also like to shorten the time it takes to receive requested books. "If Amazon.com can do it in two days, then so can we," says Hogan.
Hogan is one of the founding members of the Association of College and Research Libraries Bibliographic Instruction Section and helped shape many of the association's programs. She served as Association of College and Research Libraries president and as chair of the bibliographic instruction section. She also served on the board of directors twice, the task force on strategic planning, and the budget and finance committee. Hogan has been active in many boards and committees of the American Library Association and is currently chairing the Task Force on Core Competencies for Librarians. She is a member of the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges Commission on Information Technologies, the Depository Library Council and the ILLINET Network Advisory Council.
Over the past 31 years, Hogan's career has included positions as director of libraries at Louisiana State University, acting deputy director at Temple University Library, and a variety of positions at the University of Michigan Libraries.
Hogan will receive an award of $3,000 and a citation at a ceremony and reception given in her honor on July 10 during the ALA annual conference in Chicago.
- UIC -