The New Members Round Table (NMRT) and the American Library Association (ALA) Awards Committee wish to congratulate the University of South Carolina as the winner of the 2015 ALA Student Chapter of the Year Award and Indiana University as this year’s runner-up.
The Student Chapter of the Year Award is presented in recognition of a chapter’s outstanding contributions to ALA, its school, and the profession. The purpose of the award is to increase student involvement in ALA through student chapters and to recognize its leaders. Official ALA Student Chapters are organizations formed by students at schools offering accredited programs of library and information studies. The winning student chapter receives a $1,000 travel grant to help with the cost of ALA conference attendance.
This year’s Student Chapter of the Year Award Committee praises the University of South Carolina for its excellence in each of the six categories – communication, financial health, membership, leadership, and programs related to the Student Chapter of the Year Award. Items that especially impressed the committee included the chapter’s commitment towards creating a sense of community with their on-campus and distance students alike through various communication efforts and streaming events, its leadership both within their own LIS program as well as within local library associations, and its creative fundraising efforts and social activities. Congratulations, University of South Carolina!
The runner-up of this year’s award is the ALA Student Chapter at Indiana University, who was particularly commended for both the diverse slate of programming the provided their chapter throughout the year, such as its on-going speaker series and career panels, as well as the frequent collaborations they established with other student groups.
Both chapters will be recognized at an award ceremony during the NMRT Student Reception at the 2015 ALA Annual Conference in San Francisco. The reception will be held on Sunday, June 28 at 6:30-7:30pm at the Parc 55 San Francisco, Embarcadero room (55 Cyril Magnin Street / San Francisco, CA 94102). Please save the date and join us in congratulating our award recipients!
The members of the SCOTYA Committee, NMRT, and the ALA Awards Committee appreciate the time and effort put in by all of the nominated ALA student chapters this year, and we encourage all to keep up the great work!
SCOTYA Committee 2015:
Michelle Demeter (Chair), Tarida Anantachai, Maureen Cropper, Kristen Mapes, Natalie DeJonghe, Elena Azadbakht, Lindsey Taggart, Amanda Melilli