Hudson County Community College to Be Presented with 2016 ACRL Excellence in Academic Libraries Award This Friday Morning
May 3, 2016
May 3, 2016, Jersey City, NJ – This Friday morning, May 6, at 9:30, officials from the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) will present Hudson County Community College (HCCC) with the 2016 ACRL Excellence in Academic Libraries Award. The award ceremony will take place in the reception area of the College’s Benjamin J. Dineen, III and Dennis C. Hull Gallery on the sixth floor of the College’s Library Building – 71 Sip Avenue in Jersey City.
ACRL President Ann Campion Riley will present the award to HCCC President Glen Gabert, Ph.D. and Associate Dean for College Libraries Carol Van Houten. There is also a $3,000 prize connected with the award and that will be presented by Patricia Adams, Senior Collection Development Manager from YBP Library Services, which sponsors a portion of the award.
Hudson County Community College is one of just three academic libraries in the United States to be selected as a recipient of a 2016 Excellence in Academic Libraries Award, which recognizes the staff of a college, university, and community college library for programs that deliver exemplary services and resources to further the educational mission of that institution. The other two 2016 ACRL recipients are Macalester College DeWitt Wallace Library (St. Paul, MN) and Atlanta University Robert W. Woodruff Library (Atlanta, GA). Recipients were chosen for demonstrating commitment to student learning, information literacy, and assessment with a focus on continuous innovation and engagement with the campus community that exemplifies today’s best academic and research libraries.
“This award is testimony to the dedication and teamwork of our Library staff in attending to the needs of our students and our community,” Dr. Gabert said. “We have been told that this is the first time any New Jersey college or university has been selected to receive this award, and we are especially proud to be the first.”
Hudson County Community College was selected for incorporating information literacy components across all general education courses and thereby positively impacting student learning. The HCCC Library staff also demonstrated leadership through the use of the iPad cart and the new HCCC Library Makerspace – one of the first such spaces to be opened on a college campus in the U.S.
Dean Van Houten related that in addition to successfully moving to and opening the College’s new Library last year, the staff also created programming for the Makerspace, hosted two exhibits, collaborated with the Office of Student Activities in hosting coffeehouses and the College’s first Literary Salon, and created a book club. She said the Library strives to engage students through a variety of events and activities, such as gaming tournaments and arts and crafts.
The HCCC libraries serve more than 9,000 students and thousands of community members on the College’s Journal Square (Jersey City) and North Hudson (Union City) campuses.