SLA's brightest stars - 1999 Special Libraries Association's award winners

Information Outlook, May, 1999

This Year's Award Winners Reflect the Best the Profession Has to Offer

Leadership, integrity, character, competency... these are just a few adjectives that describe any of SLA's award winners this year. The people outlined on the following pages have different names, faces, personalities, and backgrounds. But they all exemplify the ideals required to push special librarianship onward and upward, into a position of strength for the twenty-first century.

The winners were selected by the SLA Awards and Honors Committee, chaired by SLA Past President Sylvia Piggott, and announced by SLA President L. Susan Hayes at the Winter Meeting of the SLA Board of Directors, held January 21-23, 1999, in San Francisco, CA. The awards will be presented at SLA's 90th Annual Conference, to be held June 5-10, 1999, in Minneapolis, MN, USA.

Take time to get to know these names and faces. Learn more about them and why they have been recognized. Then you'll understand what's required of you and your fellow information professionals that will continue the long legacy of excellence that is the Special Libraries Association.

The John Cotton Dana Award, named for the founder of SLA, is conferred upon a member for exceptional service to special librarianship. This year's recipient is Fred W. Roper, Ph.D., Dean and Professor at the College of Library and Information Science at the University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC. Roper has been recognized most notably for his achievements in promoting special librarianship, scholarship, teaching, and mentoring of students. His peers have noted that he quietly and conscientiously makes his contributions to the profession in creative ways. Roper is well-known for his efforts in encouraging students to explore special librarianship as a career.

Roper has also been a advocate for special librarians through his work in SEA for over twenty-five years. Active in the South Carolina Chapter and the Biomedical & Life Sciences Division throughout his career, he served on the Executive Board of Directors as Chapter Cabinet Chair. Roper has also been a member of several SEA committees, including as chair of SLA's 75th Anniversary Conference Committee. He has most recently served as chair of the Biomedical & Life Sciences Division. Outside of SLA, Roper has served on the board, and as president, of the Medical Libraries Association, and on several committees of the American Library Association relating to accreditation. He is co-author of the standard text on medical information resources, Introduction to Reference Sources in Health Sciences.

The Hall of Fame Award is granted to members of the association at or near the end of an active professional career for an extended and sustained period of distinguished service to the association in all spheres. This year's winners are Ellen Mimnaugh, product manager for online services for the Chemical Abstracts Service, Columbus, OH; and Angela Pollis, the retired manager of the Knowledge Resource Center at U.S. Steel Corporation in Pittsburgh, PA.

Ellen Mimnaugh has served SLA in numerous capacities for over thirty years. She has been president of the Central Ohio Chapter, and chair of the Information Technology Division and the Chemistry Division. She co-chaired the Great Lakes Regional Conference II in 1992. She participated on the SLA Visioning Committee in the early 1990's, at the request of then-president Catherine "Kitty" Scott. Mimnaugh is a recognized leader who has demonstrated her dedication not only through her leadership, but also by her presence at so many SLA events. SLA members and staff who have known her have been touched by her enthusiasm, intelligence, and desire to make SLA a great organization.

Angela Pollis has touched so many lives in her active career as an information professional. She has always been proud of the profession and of those she has mentored over the years - and they are many. A longtime lecturer in the University of Pittsburgh's M.L.S. program, her courses were some of the most popular, because she taught them well and students enjoyed their time with her. Pollis has also been instrumental in securing employment for her students in the academic and corporate sectors. In her association life, her unique guided tours through the exhibit hall at SLA conferences were invaluable for new and longtime members. It has been said that her kindness and concern for others were the impetus for so many of her students to mentor students in their later years.

The Dow Jones 21st century competencies Award is awarded to an SLA member who exemplifies leadership as a special librarian through examples of personal and professional competencies. This year's award goes to Lucy Lettis, director of business information services for Arthur Andersen LLP. Lettis is recognized for her commitment to developing strong competencies and educating others on her staff to acquire those skills. This award is based on the acclaimed "Competencies for Special Librarians of the 21st Century," which can be found on the Internet at www.sla.org/professional/comp.html. Lettis' seventeen-year career has been marked by constant commitment to growth and transformation of her skills and abilities. Beginning with her rapid assent at the Pall Corporation (1985-1990) and culminating with her recent nomination for promotion to principal at Arthur Andersen this year, Lettis has consistently demonstrated both a strong desire to develop greater competencies and to share her knowledge with others. She is an outspoken advocate on the need to revolutionize the image of the information profession, and has always believed this can be achieved through implementation of the professional and personal competencies promoted by SLA.