2010 Outstanding Service to Librarianship Award Announced by the Canadian Library Association / Association canadienne des bibliothèques

(Ottawa, May 13, 2010) - The Canadian Library Association / Association canadienne des bibliothèques is pleased to announce that the 2010 Outstanding Service to Librarianship Award is being presented to Lynn Copeland. The Outstanding Service to Librarianship Award is generously sponsored by Bowker.

Over the past thirty years Lynn has helped us first to imagine and then to create the digital library in Canada. Her achievements are the result of a rare combination of vision, creativity, technical expertise, political know-how, and collaborative leadership. Without her contributions, the Canadian library scene would be less vibrant, less connected, less nimble. On many occasions, Lynn has had the foresight to move ahead with innovations that were widely adopted later by others. The fruit of her work is not only infrastructure, digital tools and collections, but an expanded vision of what libraries can be and can contribute to Canadian society.

Lynn’s work in moving libraries online began during the era of catalogue recon projects in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, and established what became a consistent theme throughout her career – collaboration amongst all types of libraries in the innovative adoption of technology. As Manager of Systems at SFU Library in the 1990’s Lynn had the vision and expertise to oversee the development of truly groundbreaking software. The development of OJAC/GODOT online requesting and linking software was innovative at the time, and is still in use across Canada and internationally today as part of the larger suite of software.

As technology and the information environment have evolved over the years, Lynn has made major contributions in the realm of digitization. Her leadership of the Canadian Heritage-funded Multicultural Canada project has resulted in a wealth of freely available online resources that highlight Canada’s diverse communities and as the current President of Canadiana.org, Lynn continues working with diligence to preserve and expose Canadian cultural heritage, providing leadership at the national level. Lynn has played a key role on the Steering Committee for the Synergies Project developing a national software platform to transform scholarly publishing and communication for Canadian humanities and social sciences from a largely print based environment to an online one.

The Outstanding Service to Librarianship Award will be presented at the CLA Awards presentation to be held Saturday, June 5 during the CLA 2010 National Conference and Trade Show in Edmonton, Alberta.

The Canadian Library Association / Association canadienne des bibliothèques is Canada’s largest national and broad-based library association, representing the interests of public, academic, school and special libraries, professional librarians and library workers, and all those concerned about enhancing the quality of life of Canadians through information and literacy.

- 30 -

Media Contact: Gary Gibson, Chair, 2010 Outstanding Service to Librarianship Award Committee,
(866) 458-2264, gary@gibsonlibraryconnections.ca