Donna Brearcliffe, Acting Head, Humanities & Social Sciences Section, Researcher & Reference Services Division of the Library of Congress has been selected as the 2018 winner of the ETS Achievement Award.
Brearcliffe served as Chair of ETS shortly after the section changed its name from MARS. She advocated strongly for completing that transition and embracing the opportunities that could come from firmly focusing the section around emerging technologies. She ensured that the section’s bylaws were updated to reflect the changed name and also helped committee chairs and members of the executive committee identify programming topics and projects that would align well with the sections new focus.
Prior to serving as chair of the section, Brearcliffe led the Best Free Websites committee and was instrumental in raising the profile of that committee’s work. Her enthusiasm for the committee helped her recruit numerous members to the section. This enthusiasm and her collegiality, also helped her be effective in her leadership of the section’s Chair’s Program Committee, and its Conference Program Planning Committee.
Brearcliffe also represented ETS to the RUSA Division level through her participation in the RUSA level Conference Program Coordinating Committee (2012-2013), RUSA Organization and Planning Committee (2016-2017) and the RUSA Restructuring Task Force (2017-2018).
The ETS Achievement Award is given annually to recognize excellence in service to RUSA’s Emerging Technologies Section (ETS). The recipient must have made either a sustained contribution toward attaining the goals of ETS, or a a single, significant contribution that has resulted in a positive impact upon the work of the section. The award will be presented at the ETS Chair’s Program “Make it so: Insights into successful leadership of emerging tech programs” on Sunday, 10:30-11:30am, June 24, at ALA’s Annual Conference in New Orleans. All conference attendees are invited to attend.
