The GSLIS Library School Alumni Association (LSAA) has announced the 2015 recipients of its annual awards. The recipients were recognized on June 28 at the LSAA Annual Meeting and reception held at the annual meeting of the American Library Association in San Francisco.
Merinda Hensley (MS '06) is the recipient of the Leadership Award, which is given to an alum who has graduated in the past ten years and shown leadership in the field of library and information science. Hensley is an assistant professor and instructional services librarian at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and co-coordinator of the University Library’s Scholarly Commons. At Illinois, she has successfully developed campus-wide and cross-disciplinary instructional opportunities, including the Savvy Researcher workshop series. Hensley has taught at GSLIS as an adjunct instructor and has worked closely with many graduate assistants from the School. She has held leadership roles with the Association of College & Research Libraries and at Illinois.
Vailey B. Oehlke (MS '92) is the recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus Award. Each year this award is given to an alum who has made an outstanding contribution to the field of library and information science. Oehlke is the director of libraries for Multnomah County, Oregon, where she heads a system of nineteen branches and more than five hundred employees. She holds a national leadership role as the current president of the Public Library Association. Other leadership roles include serving on the Digital Content Working Group of the American Library Association (ALA), the Executive Board for the Urban Libraries Council, and the Library Advisory Committee for ALA’s Policy Revolution! initiative.
Adjunct professor Fred Schlipf is the recipient of the Distinguished Service Award. Each year this award is given to a friend of GSLIS who has served LSAA or the School in an exceptional way. Schlipf joined the GSLIS faculty as an assistant professor in 1970 and has served as an adjunct professor since becoming director of the Urbana Free Library in 1974. He collaborated with former GSLIS director Herbert Goldhor to develop the practicum program and hosted many students. He retired from the Urbana library in 2007 but has continued to teach a course on library buildings at GSLIS. Schlipf’s knowledge of library building projects is extensive; he oversaw a major renovation of the Urbana library building and has served as a consultant on approximately 150 library construction projects.