VCU Libraries is one of three recipients of the 2018 Excellence in Academic Libraries Award, an annual honor recognizing staff at college, university and community college libraries for providing exemplary programs, resources and services.

The award is sponsored by the Association of College and Research Libraries and GOBI Library Solutions from EBSCO. VCU Libraries was recognized alongside the Max R. Traurig Library at Naugatuck Valley Community College and the Milne Library at the State University of New York at Geneseo.

Each library will receive $3,000 and a plaque, to be presented at an award ceremony held on each institution’s campus.

VCU Libraries was the winning library in the university category and was selected for its services, initiatives and role within the campus community, said Ann Campion Riley, chair of the 2018 Excellence in Academic Libraries Committee and vice provost and university librarian at the University of Missouri.

Among VCU’s initiatives is the Scholarly Communications and Publishing Division, which supports VCU faculty, staff and students in disseminating open scholarship. Its programs include the Open Access Author Publishing Fund to encourage publishing in open access journals; the “Mapping the KKK” digital humanities visualization project, in collaboration with VCU’s history department; and the “Social Welfare History Project,” a national online portal documenting the social welfare movement’s impact on the United States.

“We are deeply honored by this distinguished recognition from ACRL,” said John E. Ulmschneider, university librarian. “The faculty and staff of the VCU Libraries have worked with creativity, passion and immense dedication to create an exemplary research library for the 21st century and to fulfill our mission of transforming our communities through our teaching, collections and scholarship.”

Applications of winning institutions