Neal Wyatt Wins Prestigious Award

My colleague and editor, Neal Wyatt was announced as the winner of the Monroe Award for Adult Library Services, today.  Way to go Neal!

I am honored to have her and Joyce Saricks (a previous winner) as my editors.  Also, I am so glad this award recognizes the importance of readers advisory in adult services.

Here is the press release:

Neal Wyatt wins RUSA’s esteemed Monroe Award for adult library service

For Immediate Release

Tue, 05/01/2012 - 12:50

Contact: Elizabeth Markel
RUSA

CHICAGO —Neal Wyatt, Ph.D. candidate at Virginia Commonwealth University, is the 2012 winner of the Reference and User Services Association’s (RUSA) Margaret E. Monroe Award for significant contributions to library services for adults.

Wyatt is in esteemed company—previous winners of this annual award include renowned readers’ advisory experts Nancy Pearl, Joyce Saricks and Barry Trott. Wyatt was selected for her contributions to the field through her dedication as writer, teacher, mentor and original thinker over more than a decade of professional librarianship. She has pursued new and creative directions in readers’ advisory and has made numerous presentations at state and national library association conferences that have directly contributed to a renewed interest in readers’ advisory services. She has also provided valuable collaborative leadership that has engaged her professional colleagues in thoughtful reflections on the changing role and practice of adult services librarianship.

Wyatt's contributions are also reflected in her extensive list of publications. She is the author of "The Readers' Advisory Guide to Nonfiction" (ALA Editions, 2007) as well as the monthly "RA Crossroads" whole collection column, and the nine-article "Reinventing RA" series, both for Library Journal. She has served as the "The Alert Collector" column editor for Reference and User Services Quarterly (RUSQ) since 2006, the "Reader's Shelf" column editor for Library Journal since 2007 and as the co-editor of ALA Editions’ Readers' Advisory series since 2007.

Wyatt holds holds a B.A. in English from Virginia Commonwealth University, an M.L.S. in Library Science from the Catholic University of America and an M.A. in English from Virginia Commonwealth University and is currently a doctoral candidate in the Media, Art and Text program at Virginia Commonwealth University. Her previous professional honors include being named a Library Journal Mover and Shaker (2005) and the Virginia Library Association/SIRS Intellectual Freedom Award (2001).

Wyatt will be honored at the RUSA Awards Reception, scheduled for 5 - 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, June 24 in the Sequoia South Ballroom D at the Disney Grand Californian Hotel as a part of RUSA’s events at the ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim, Calif. For more information, visit RUSA’s website or the Annual Conference website.

The Reference and User Services Association, a division of the American Library Association, 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.