The SLA Transportation Community board is happy to share that Sheila Hatchell is receiving the 2024 Professional Achievement Award, and Eric Schwarz is receiving the 2024 Innovation Award.
Sheila has led many accomplishments while directing MnDOT Library since 2007, including an award-winning renovation of the library space in 2010-2011, the Return on Investment study of MnDOT Library in 2013, MnDOT Library Strategic Plan in 2017, and the vision to increase the library's digital services in recent years. Contributions to the larger community include co-authoring Proving Your Library’s Value: A Toolkit for Transportation Libraries and serving as president of the SLA Transportation division in 2012.
Sheila Hatchell with SLA Transportation Community 2024 Professional Achievement Award. With Sheila are (L-R) Maddie Kuncio, Qin Tang, Karen Neinstadt and Marilee Tuite. Missing is Jim Byerly. "I must also recognize our wonderful MnDOT Library staff – Jim Byerly, Qin Tang, Karen Neinstadt, Maddie Kuncio, and our special projects librarian Marilee Tuite, because none of this would have been possible without the amazing work each of them brings to the library every day," stated Sheila.
In 2023 Eric found the names of five men who had sacrificed their lives in an employee newspaper called The Highway, published from 1942 to 1950. He pieced together the stories of these five men using the accounts from The Highway, supplemented by research using the New Jersey State Library’s newspaper databases and draft registration cards from a military records database. Eric presented these stories as the keynote speaker of NJDOT’s 23rd Annual Remembrance Ceremony where the names were added to the memorial wall.
Eric Schwarz with SLA Transportation Community 2024 Innovation Award. Photo taken July 9, 2024, at the New Jersey Department of Transportation's Employee Memorial. Photo by Glenn Catana, New Jersey Department of Transportation.
Sheila and Eric were nominated by their peers.
The purpose of the Professional Achievement Award is to honor those who have rendered distinguished service or have made a significant contribution to transportation libraries and librarianship. This contribution or service may take the form of contributions to library and transportation literature or bibliography, to the work and effectiveness of the Special Libraries Association and the Transportation Division, or to the transportation field through organizational work or publications.
The Innovation Award will recognize a project, technique, tool, or practical solution that has improved or has the potential to improve access, dissemination, or retrieval of transportation information. The project, technique, tool, or practical solution will have been developed and implemented during the previous two years. Particular consideration will be given to those that have broad applicability, where results are likely to be replicable in other settings.
Posted on behalf of Glenn Cole, Manager, Library Services, Transportation Association of Canada (TAC), gcole@tac-atc.ca
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