Tyler Krenzin
Lantern Staff
Professors are rarely celebrated for their many achievements in the classroom. The L.W. Nixon Library decided to change that stigma when they started the Dewey Award.
The Dewey Faculty Award was put into place to recognize a faculty member who is an outstanding user of the L.W. Nixon Library each year. The standards the library holds nominees to every year include who has been the most innovative and effective with their use of the library, who encourages the use of the library and who is helping the librarians select books and databases to ensure student success.
The Dewey Awards was the brain child of Judy Bastin, a research and instruction librarian. Bastin brought the idea to the Director of Library Services Micaela Ayers, and Ayers decided to run with it.
The award started originally in 2010, with 10 winners up to this semester. Usually, there is only one winner per year; however, last year’s award featured two winners, Professors of English Katheryn McCoskey and Jenny Kidd.
Winners of the awards receive a $500 grant to select books to place in the library from their subject area, a $50 bookstore gift certificate to purchase books for their own inspiration and the winners will appear on the library’s READ posters with their favorite book. The READ posters will be distributed in areas across the El Dorado campus.
“It was by students and (library) staff (members),” McCoskey said when asked how she was nominated.
McCoskey choose to add drama anthology books and the book “Wise Blood” by Flannery O’Conner. O’Conner was the writer she chose to feature in her READ poster.
“I think it’s because I encouraged kids to use the library,” Kidd said when asked why she thought she was nominated.
Kidd also added a collection of books to the library including audio books of “The Lord of the Rings” series. Kidd also added books by the Native American writer Louise Erdrich, coinciding with her decisions to add books on social issues.
“I struggled… because I wanted to have some variety (in my choices),” Kidd said when asked if choosing the books for the library was difficult.
A plaque in the L.W. Nixon Library cements the legacy of the award with a list of all the winners dating back to 2010. Associate Professor of English Mac Thompson received the Dewey Award, which was announced at Institutional Development Day (IDD) on Thursday, March 29. Robert Arthur, professor of English, was announced as the second place recipient of the Dewey Award.