LAWRENCEVILLE, GA, March 7, 2019 — Gwinnett County Public Library and the San José State University School of Information have selected Stephanie Rawlins, Pike County Library from a group of five finalists as the winner of the 2019 Innovative Librarians Award. The award recognizes library science graduate students who put forward new ideas that improve libraries and library services.
Rawlins, Library Director at Pike County Library in Indiana, will receive a $1,000 cash prize for her work on implementing Virtual Healthcare at local libraries. Virtual healthcare has the potential to create better health care awareness, minimize hospital admissions, and better monitor long-term and post-hospital patient care all while being held in a local library branch.
Finalists
Stephanie Ann Rawlins, Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis (? Winner) Innovation: Virtual Healthcare
Dan Alexander, Emporia State University Innovation: Freshman Digital Literacy
Carla Bywaters, School of Information at San José State University Innovation: Now is the Time for 21st Century Programming!
Belinda Outwater, University of North Carolina Greensboro Innovation: Early Literacy Community Partnerships
Carrie Norris, University of Southern Mississippi Innovation: The Art and Wellness Initiative (AWI)
Nominations were blind-judged by public librarians and library and information science educators with years of frontline, managerial and administrative experience.
“We’re thrilled to be able to offer this opportunity to library science students,” says Michael Casey, GCPL Director of Customer Experience. “This year’s innovations were impressive and we’re so happy that we can share them with libraries around the globe.”
The award is open to all students who are currently enrolled and pursuing a graduate degree in Library Science, or who have graduated with an MLS or MLIS within the past two years.
For more information and to read submissions from all five finalists, visit innovativelibrarians.com.