The Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the Art Libraries Society of North America is pleased to announce its conference award winners for 2021.
Caroline Backlund Award
This award was established in 2002 and is named in honor of Carline Backlund (1920-2016) who had a distinguished career as an art librarian, educator, and author. Mrs. Backlund, a long-time chapter member, received the ARLIS/NA Distinguished Service Award in 1989 for her contributions to the Society. The Backlund Award is intended to help student members of the Mid-Atlantic Chapter become more involved in the ARLIS/NA at the national level. Funding for the award is provided by contributions of members of the chapter.
The 2021 Caroline Backlund Award recipient is K. Sarah Ostrach, currently the holder of the 2020/21 Samuel H. Kress Fellowship in Art Librarianship at the Robert B. Hass Family Arts Library at Yale University. K. Sarah is a 2021 graduate of the College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland. She is an alumnus of Brown University and received her MA in East Asian Art from Sotheby’s Institute of Art. While studying for her MLIS, K. Sarah worked as a student technician at the National Gallery of Art Library as well as a teaching assistant at UMD.
On May 13 at the Montreal conference, Ms. Ostrach will be co-presenting with Claralyn Burt (Gonzaga University) at Session 28: Professional Development IV — Collaborative Institutional Problem-Solving: Exploring DEI Initiatives and Five Case Studies Across Libraries and Museums. Their presentation is called “Fostering Collaborative Institutional Cultures through DEI Initiatives.”
Washington Art Library Resources Committee Award
The Washington Art Library Resources Committee (WALRC) comprised research libraries in the Greater Washington, DC area. In 1981, WALRC published Art serials: union list of art periodicals and serials in research libraries in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area (edited by Carolyn S. Larson) which proved to be a very useful and popular publication. In 2018 WALRC, which had been inactive for many years, disbanded and the funds from the sale of the publication was transferred to the Chapter. The WALRC Award is intended for professional members of the Mid-Atlantic Chapter to become more involved with ARLIS/NA at the national level. Funding for the award is provided by income from WALRC invested accounts.
The 2021 WALRC Award is presented to Mary Wassermann. A long-time member of ARLIS/NA and the Mid-Atlantic chapter, Mary is the former Collection Services Librarian at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. She has served ARLIS/NA as moderator of the Collection Development SIG and the Visual Resources Division, and as a member of the Public Policy Committee.
Congratulations to the award recipients. I would like to thank the members of the Travel Awards Committee for their work; Anna Boutin-Cooper (Franklin and Marshall College), Claralyn Burt (Gonzaga University), and Yuki Hibben (Virginia Commonwealth University) as well as officers of the chapter for their guidance in reimagining the travel award for a virtual conference.
Gregory P. J. Most
Chair, ARLIS/NA Mid-Atlantic Chapter Travel Awards Committee