Official announcement from the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL):

Scott Walter, associate university librarian for services, associate dean of libraries and

Scott Walter receives the 2012 Distinguished Education and Behavioral Science Librarian Award

professor of library administration and library and information science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is the recipient of the 2012 Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Education and Behavioral Sciences Section (EBSS) Distinguished Education and Behavioral Sciences Librarian Award.This award honors a distinguished academic librarian who has made an outstanding contribution as an education and/or behavioral sciences librarian through accomplishments and service to the profession. A prize of $2,500 and a citation, donated by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., will be presented to Walter at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, June 23, 2012, during the EBSS program at the 2012 ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim.

“Scott Walter has provided service and leadership to EBSS, ACRL, ALA and AERA,” said award chair Cynthia Crosser, social sciences and humanities reference librarian at the University of Maine. “He has not only published extensively, but he has served as the editor of Education Libraries and served on the editorial boards of ACRL Publications in Librarianship, College & Research Libraries and Behavioral & Social Sciences Librarian. Scott also participated in presenting a series of pre-conference workshops on information literacy at ALA, ACRL and LOEX conferences. EBSS wants to recognize Scott for his many contributions to our field.”

Walter has held numerous positions in EBSS, including chair of the Nominating Committee (2005-06), member of the Ad Hoc Historical Textbook and Curriculum Collections Directory Committee (2001-03), the ALA Conference Program Committee (2000-2002) and the Instruction for Educators Committee (1999-2001). Walter was nominated and elected to EBSS leadership, serving as vice-chair/chair-elect (2002-03), section chair (2003-04) and past chair (2004-05).

Walter’s service to ACRL also includes serving as a member of the Publications in Librarianship Editorial Board (2011-14), chair of the Excellence in Academic Libraries Award Nominating Committee (2010-11), member of the College & Research Libraries Editorial Board (2008-14), chair of the Research Coordinating Committee (2007-09) and co-chair of the Seattle National Conference Virtual Conference Committee (2007-09).

His numerous publications include “The Expert Library: Staffing, Sustaining, and Advancing the Academic Library in the 21st century,” with Karen Williams (2010); “Librarians as Teachers: A Qualitative Inquiry into Professional Identity” in College and Research Libraries (2008); “Improving Instruction: What Librarians Can Learn from the Study of College Teaching” (2005); and “Information Literacy Instruction for Educators: Professional Knowledge for an Information Age,” with Dawn Shinew (2003).

Walter served as education librarian at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, Ohio State University and Washington State University prior to pursuing his career in library administration. On April 30, 2012, he will assume the position of university librarian at DePaul University in Chicago.

Walter received his M.A. from American University and his M.L.S. and M.S. from Indiana University. In 2005, he earned his Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration from Washington State University.

ACRL is a division of the American Library Association (ALA), representing more than 12,000 academic and research librarians and interested individuals. ACRL is the only individual membership organization in North America that develops programs, products and services to meet the unique needs of academic and research librarians. Its initiatives enable the higher education community to understand the role that academic libraries play in the teaching, learning and research environments. ACRL is on the Web at http://www.acrl.org/, Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ala.acrl and Twitter at @ala_acrl.