[Libs-Or] Announcing the 2020 ACRL-Oregon Award for Excellence Winners

[Candise Branum]

The ACRL-Oregon Board is proud to award this year's ACRL-Oregon Award for
Excellence to two excellent projects: *Writing (Pacific Northwest) African
American History into Wikipedia* and the OLA *Equity, Diversity,
Inclusion/Anti-Racism Task Force*. The ACRL-Oregon Award for Excellence is
given to recognize a project that demonstrates excellence in the field by
significantly improving Oregon academic libraries or librarianship. The
Award for Excellence Committee uses a rubric to judge the projects, and
both winning projects received exactly the same excellent score.

We are thrilled to recognize two projects that represent efforts to center
BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) history in our region and
the needs of BIPOC workers in our profession:

The *Writing (Pacific Northwest) African American History into Wikipedia*
team recognized an information gap within Wikipedia related to African
American history, especially for the Pacific Northwest. Librarians at
Oregon State University organized Wikipedia Editathons
<https://guides.library.oregonstate.edu/editathons2020> to make this
history more visible. As a result, they have not only increased access to
information about Pacific Northwest African American history, but they have
also trained new editors who can continue this work. They have held two
Editathons and have had participation from students enrolled in OSU courses
as well as community members. Overall the Editathons demonstrate a
commitment to social justice by addressing Wikipedia’s well-documented
racial bias and offer a valuable model for librarians and archivists to
enact change. OSU Librarian Laurie Bridges led this effort along with a
team that included OSU librarians Diana Park and Tiah Edmunson-Morton. This
project was also written about in an OLA Quarterly article
<https://doi.org/10.7710/1093-7374.1987> as part of the Equity, Diversity,
and Inclusion issue in Fall 2019.

The OLA *Equity, Diversity, Inclusion/Anti-Racism Task Force *was charged
by the Oregon Library Association Board in Fall 2019 with developing an EDI
plan for the organization. The Task Force, which focused on anti-racism as
its primary focus, presented its recommendations
<https://www.olaweb.org/assets/BoardMeetings/2019-20/2020_04/OLA%20Equity%2C%20Diversity%2C%20and%20Inclusion%20Task%20Force%20Recommendations%20%281%29.pdf>
in Spring 2020 which were adopted by the OLA Board and have influenced the
planning of the Oregon Association of School Librarians as well as the
ACRL-Oregon. According to Task Force Co-Chair, Marci Ramiro-Jenkins of the
McMinnville Public Library, “this project will help with the implementation
of anti-racist best practices, will promote education and guidance for
librarians and library staff in regards to EDI and anti-racism best
practices, will advocate for support for librarians of color when it comes
to emotional labor, microaggression and racial battle fatigue, and will
improve the retention of  library staff and patrons from underrepresented
groups.” Ramiro-Jenkins shares this award with co-Chair Martín Blasco of
Washington County Cooperative Library Services, Meredith Farkas of Portland
Community College Library (who serves on the award committee and recused
herself from the voting), Ayn Frazee of Portland Public Schools, Danielle
Jones of Multnomah County Library, Lisa Taylor of Happy Valley Library, and
Alisa Williams of Multnomah County Library.

Both project leads will receive a plaque commemorating the award and will
be recognized at the OLA Annual Conference’s awards ceremony.

ACRL-OR Award for Excellence Committee

Arlene Weible

Candise Branum

Katherine Donaldson

Meredith Farkas


*Candise Branum*
Director of Library Services
Oregon College of Oriental Medicine (OCOM)
503-253-3443 x134 <(503)%20253-3443>   |   75 NW Couch Street, Portland, OR
97209
<https://maps.google.com/?q=75+NW+Couch+Street,+Portland,+OR+97209&entry=gmail&source=g>
|   library.ocom.edu

*Pronouns: She, her, hers**Want to donate? Check out our book wishlist
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