The Henry Madden Library Employee Engagement Committee presented the Second Annual HML Annual Awards to the following exceptional employees at their Virtual Staff and Faculty Retreat on Aug. 3. The awardees were nominated by their co-workers and selected by representatives of the faculty and staff. Dean Del Hornbuckle presented the awards with the following comments to each awardee. Congratulations, Library Bulldogs!

Outstanding Achievement by a Team Award — Interlibrary Loan

Presented to a group that has meritoriously completed a special project or responded to a particular library need in the last year.

ILL's services were particularly needed during the pandemic and made even harder because of the slowdown and closures at other libraries. They created processes for mail-in returns for students, staff and faculty who were not nearby due to the pandemic. They also were ranked the No. 1 resource sharing library among the CSU libraries during the pandemic. Their tireless dedication to service during the pandemic is remarkable and a fine example of librarianship everywhere.

Pushing Forward — Ginny Barnes

Presented to a staff member who has developed and/or implemented an effective use of technology or innovative thinking that enhances library services and/or operations.

Ginny is always in search of new ways to present the library to students and to create an inclusive experience for each of them. Her virtual events around the "Lift Every Voice" grant were creative, inventive, collaborative, and a big hit with both students and community. She used the Zoom platform to the best of its capability for the content she was crafting. She has also embraced being a face of the library through social media, hosting Instagram lives and creating TikToks to introduce the library to our students. Embracing this new form of library communication definitely pushes forward outreach to the library's No. 1 audience.

Individual Excellence Award - Staff — Karina Cardenas

Presented to a staff person who has made outstanding contributions toward fulfilling the library’s institutional purpose. Award recipients have been nominated and selected by their peers for demonstrating consistent excellence in their support provided to the Henry Madden Library.

Karina has shown herself to be dedicated, intelligent and highly competent throughout the pandemic. She's been a key player in SCRC work in the building, taking research appointments and organizing SCRC virtual tours for the Alumni Association and OLLI. She has also taken on an important leadership role for the entire library: she stepped up to be the staff co-chair for the Library Strategic Plan committee and has shown exceptional dedication and insight into crafting that process and leading both faculty and staff through the process. She's done a lot of heavy lifting as the LSP co-chair that will make our long-term strategic plan even better. She's dependable, creative, organized, candid, and can work with a wide variety of people. Karina represents the future of librarianship and the values and mission of what academic libraries offer to a rapidly shifting demographic. She is committed to excellence, inclusion and making a difference in how students, staff and faculty experience our library.

Individual Excellence Award - Faculty — Dolly Lopez

Presented to a faculty librarian who has made outstanding contributions toward fulfilling the library’s institutional purpose. Award recipients have been nominated and selected by their peers for demonstrating consistent excellence in their support provided to the Henry Madden Library.

Dolly’s work is always exemplary, and she has an incredible work ethic, diligence, and commitment to excellence in library collections. Throughout the pandemic, she has worked with her collections colleagues to respond to campus and librarian requests with speed, expertise and innovative solutions. If this work wasn’t enough, she had also led the library through a collections review and cancellation process at a scope Henry Madden Library has never undertaken. This work has been difficult and not without controversy, challenges and dissent: however, Dolly deserves recognition for navigating it with professionalism, commitment and patron-centered solutions.

Behind the Scenes Award — Rebecca Reid-Johansson

Presented to a staff member who makes consistent contributions that positively impact a department, the library, and/or library users but may not receive much public recognition as their work is often unseen or is not always a prominent service.

Rebecca Reid-Johansson made consistent contributions that positively impacted a department, the library, and/or library users throughout the year, but may not have received much public recognition. The Cataloging Unit is the likely the most “unseen” unit of the entire library, and Rebecca is flexible, caring, dedicated and passionate. During the past year, almost all of the cataloging work has fallen to Rebecca, especially with her only remaining co-worker in cataloging out on leave. She has also been the only person coming into the building to help do this work as everyone else has been 100% virtual. Rebecca has also been assisting with re-shelving books and managing the mail room throughout the year. I know of no other person who would be able to continue to work with such a cheerful demeanor. Rebecca shows resilience time and time again, coming back each time with a positive attitude.