The American Library Association (ALA) Ethnic and Multicultural Information Exchange Round Table (EMIERT) has selected Mark A. Puente, director of diversity and leadership programs for ARL, to receive the EMIERT Distinguished Librarian Award for 2015. Given annually, the Distinguished Librarian Award recognizes significant accomplishments in library services that are national or international in scope and include improving, spreading, and promoting multicultural librarianship.
Puente is being recognized for his work to expand diversity efforts within the library profession, specifically toward developing strategies and programs that librarians in all types of libraries can use to enhance their collections and services to underserved users. His work with the National Diversity in Libraries Conference, the Spectrum Scholarship Initiative, and individual libraries provides opportunities for librarians to share stories, related research, collection approaches, and best practices for increasing workplace diversity and creating an inclusive workplace environment.
As recipient of the 2015 Distinguished Librarian Award, Puente will receive a commemorative plaque and a $500 honorarium to be presented during the EMIERT President’s Program, “Collective Cultural Competency: Promoting a Dialogue about Diversity in an Academic Library,” Saturday, June 27, 4:30 p.m., Moscone Convention Center, 3012(W), during ALA’s 2015 Annual Conference in San Francisco.
For more information about this award and Puente’s achievements, see the June 19 ALA news release, “Mark Puente Recipient of 2015 EMIERT Distinguished Librarian Award.”
The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit organization of 124 research libraries in the US and Canada. ARL’s mission is to influence the changing environment of scholarly communication and the public policies that affect research libraries and the diverse communities they serve. ARL pursues this mission by advancing the goals of its member research libraries, providing leadership in public and information policy to the scholarly and higher education communities, fostering the exchange of ideas and expertise, facilitating the emergence of new roles for research libraries, and shaping a future environment that leverages its interests with those of allied organizations. ARL is on the web at https://www.arl.org/.
