Greenwell Receives Dow Jones Leadership Award
LEXINGTON, Ky. (Dec. 13, 2010) − Stacey Greenwell, associate dean for Academic Affairs and Research at University of Kentucky Libraries, is the 2010 recipient of the Special Libraries Association's (SLA) Dow Jones Leadership Award. The honor, which carries a $2,000 cash award, recognizes Greenwell's dedication to the SLA Kentucky Chapter, her groundbreaking work at UK, and her inspirational leadership as a founder and first chair of the SLA Academic Division.
"Stacey Greenwell represents the ideal example of leadership, engagement, innovation and service in our association," said 2010 SLA President Anne Caputo. "She is extremely deserving of this award, and I am so pleased that we are honoring her hard work as well as her natural ability to lead and inspire excellence in others."
As associate dean at the UK Libraries, Greenwell is responsible for the administration of all public services based in the William T. Young Library, as well as nine branch locations. Formerly she served as the head of the UK Information Commons, known to many as The Hub, a collaborative student space which combines a technology help desk and computer lab with traditional library reference services. Greenwell helped design the facility and managed The Hub from its opening in March 2007 to August 2010.
"The Hub is the embodiment of new libraries. It gets students into the library and it keeps them there. It allows them to use the library in the way that they want to use it," said former colleague and SLA member Sarah Glassmeyer. "The Hub is part of the culture on campus and has really transformed what the UK faculty and students think libraries are, and shown them the wide variety of things that libraries can do."
Dean of UK Libraries Terry Birdwhistell is grateful to have such a talent on the university's staff.
"Stacey is a national leader in our profession and she is playing a major leadership role within UK Libraries to provide needed information, at the right time, and in the best format to students, faculty, staff, and researchers everywhere," commented Birdwhistell.
Active in SLA since 2001, Greenwell is a member of the Kentucky Chapter and the Academic, Information Technology (IT), and Leadership & Management Divisions. She served the IT Division in a number of roles, including chair and program planner. Greenwell helped launch the Academic Division in 2008 and served as the division's first chair. In 2009, she was named a Fellow of SLA. In addition, Greenwell has served the Kentucky Chapter in a number of roles and received the chapter's Professional Award in 2006 and Outstanding Member Award in 2008.
An award-winning librarian, Greenwell was also previously named a Frye Leadership Institute Fellow and the Lyrasis NextGen Librarian Award for Leadership winner in 2009. She is frequently invited to speak at conferences and writes about information commons, library and technology issues on her blog, The Uncommon Commons blog.
Greenwell holds master's degree in library science and a bachelor's degree in English from UK. In 2009, she began the doctoral program in instructional systems design at UK's College of Education.
Greenwell was presented with the Dow Jones Leadership Award during the opening general session of the SLA Annual Conference & INFO-EXPO in New Orleans this summer. To view a video about Greenwell and her achievements, visit the awards channel on SLA-TV at www.slatv.org/media.cfm?c=759&m=3417&s=120&.
The Special Libraries Association (SLA) is a nonprofit global organization for innovative information professionals and their strategic partners. SLA serves more than 10,000 members in 75 countries in the information profession, including corporate, academic and government information specialists. SLA promotes and strengthens its members through learning, advocacy and networking initiatives. For more information, visit www.sla.org.