Celebrating MLA’s 2024 Achievement Awards

The Virginia L. and William K. Beatty Volunteer Service Award recognizes a medical librarian who has demonstrated outstanding and sustained service to the Medical Library Association and the health sciences library profession. The 2024 recipient is Abby L. Adamczyk, AHIP. She has a remarkable record of volunteer service within the MLA, notably serving as chair and past chair of the Research Caucus, where she maintained group cohesion during the COVID-19 pandemic and organized a research immersion session for the MLA 2022 annual meeting. Additionally, Adamczyk has a sustained record of publications and presentations at national and regional conferences, elevating the profession of health sciences librarianship and MLA’s core values. She is recognized as a focused, encouraging leader who embodies the spirit of MLA and advocates for the profession’s values. Overall, Adamczyk’s sustained engagement and contributions make her highly deserving of recognition within the Medical Library Association and the health sciences librarianship profession.

The Estelle Brodman Award for the Academic Health Sciences Librarian of the Year recognizes an academic health sciences librarian at mid-career who has demonstrated significant achievement, the potential for leadership, and continuing excellence. This year’s recipient is Bethany S. McGowan, AHIP. Currently a tenured Associate Professor and Librarian at Purdue University, McGowan has been a professional health sciences librarian since 2011, starting her career at Howard University. Her achievements in teaching, service, and research are highly commendable. At Howard, she launched a traveling reference service that became an embedded librarian position. At Purdue, she led the Diplomacy Lab: Strategies for Identifying Dis/Misinformation, a project with the U.S. Department of State, supervising students to create a policy report and social listening dashboard for diplomats. This project is now used to train State’s Watch Officers. McGowan’s work has earned her numerous awards, including the 2023-24 Fulbright Scholar Award to study and teach at Tampere University in Finland.

The Consumer Health Librarian of the Year Award recognizes a consumer health librarian who exemplifies the best in consumer health librarianship. This year’s recipient is Kelsey Grabeel, AHIP. She has distinguished herself through instruction, publications, presentations, outreach, service, and scholarship. Grabeel teaches an annual health literacy class and has published 27 peer-reviewed articles and given 31 presentations on consumer health librarianship. Her outreach includes little free libraries, TV segments, and farmer’s market exhibits. Grabeel has served on advisory committees and as a grant reviewer for the NNLM. Her research on the opioid crisis in east Tennessee and health disparities in rural Appalachia has highlighted important issues and shown how health science libraries can help. Kelsey has also demonstrated leadership as a principal or co-investigator on seven grants and by training peers and supervisees.

The Louise Darling Award for Distinguished Achievement in Collection Development in the Health Sciences recognizes distinguished achievement in collection development in the health sciences. Karen Gau and Iris Kovar-Gough, AHIP are the recipients of this year’s award for the editing of the second edition of the MLA Collection Development Guide. Editing the guide was a complex project that required extensive collaboration with many stakeholders. They worked together to update a core text that will have a far-reaching impact on librarians nationwide. Their commitment to open access ensured that the guide is available to all librarians regardless of their library setting. Gau and Kovar-Gough’s cooperative effort was exemplary, as they coordinated a team of eight collection development librarians to edit sections of the guide, ensuring it included principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Their leadership is evident through their roles within MLA, including leadership positions in the MLA Collection Development Caucus. Their dedication and contributions make them highly deserving of the Louise Darling Award.

The Ida and George Eliot Prize is awarded for a published work that has been judged most effective in furthering medical librarianship. This year’s recipients are Michele Klein-Fedyshin, AHIP, FMLA, and Andrea M. Ketchum for their article “PubMed’s core clinical journals filter: redesigned for contemporary clinical impact and utility.” Their work updated the Core Clinical Journals list, which hadn’t been evaluated in 50 years, adding new topics and journals relevant to health sciences libraries. This revised list aids collection development, benefits new and established medical schools, and enhances instructional sessions for health professionals and students. The list, now called Clinically Useful Journals, is also used by Ovid Technologies as a search limit. The detailed analysis and organized presentation in their article make it accessible and valuable for many readers. The authors’ commitment to improving medical librarianship is evident in their thorough approach and the practical applications of their work. Their contribution ensures that health sciences libraries remain current and effective in supporting clinical practice.

The Carla J. Funk Governmental Relations Award recognizes a medical librarian who has demonstrated outstanding leadership in the area of governmental relations at the federal, state, or local level and who has furthered the goal of providing quality information for improved health. Margaret Ansell, AHIP is the 2024 Funk Award recipient. Ansell has achieved high levels of advocacy and leadership, notably as chair of the Joint MLA/AAHSL Legislative Task Force and the MLA Governmental Relations Committee. She adeptly navigated challenges, including leading virtual meetings during the COVID-19 pandemic and advocating for increased appropriations for the National Library of Medicine. Maggie’s extensive service to MLA includes co-chairing committees, developing advocacy materials, and fostering collaborations across MLA. Her contributions to government relations and health information access are vast, reflecting the spirit of Carla J. Funk and making her a deserving candidate for this prestigious award.

The T. Mark Hodges International Service Award honors an outstanding individual achievement in promoting, enabling, and/or delivering improvements in the quality of health information internationally. The 2024 award is presented to Masimba Clyde Muziringa. His impact spans globally as an active member of health sciences librarianship associations worldwide. He was the inaugural recipient of the International Bursary award from the CILIP Health Sciences Group in 2012, which facilitated his participation in a UK professional development program. In the same year, Muziringa contributed significantly to Elsevier’s Collaboration for Evidence-Based Health Care in Africa initiative. Three years later, he won the Jay Jordan IFLA/OCLC Fellowship, affording him a transformative four-week fellowship program at OCLC in the United States, during which he devised a mentorship plan for new librarians that revolutionized medical library services in Zimbabwe and Africa. His global efforts were further amplified through his involvement in the MLA Librarians’ Without Borders 2019 Grant, enabling him to establish evidence synthesis projects and teams in Zimbabwe. These endeavors, alongside Muziringa’s local contributions, underscore his profound commitment to advancing health sciences librarianship and information access worldwide.

The Lucretia W. McClure Excellence in Education Award honors outstanding practicing librarians or library educators in the field of health sciences librarianship and informatics. The 2024 recipient is Margaret Jane Foster, AHIP. She has authored influential books and guidelines, taught numerous courses and workshops globally, and produced accessible webinars reaching a wide audience. Foster’s involvement in MLA includes co-founding the Systematic Review Caucus and contributing to the development of Systematic Review Specialization Levels I & II. Her extensive publications and role in curriculum planning at Texas A&M University further highlight her dedication to education and the profession. Additionally, Foster established the Center for Systematic Reviews and Research Syntheses, serving as its Director.

The Daniel T. Richards Prize recognizes the best published work related to collection development in the health sciences written by an MLA member. The 2024 recipients are Megan Besaw Inman and Marlena Rose, AHIP  for their book: Building Health Sciences Library Collections: A Handbook. This book provides practical guidance, case studies, and personal experiences, focusing on creating and curating health sciences collections where none previously existed. Tailored to meet the needs of the target audience, especially those outside of medical schools but still working with the health sciences, it will be particularly useful to library professionals new to health sciences collection development or those establishing new health science programs. Offering insights into discipline-specific resources, open educational resources, and collection trends, it provides comprehensive guidelines for building a collection that meets a wide range of patrons’ needs.