Category: PAM Awards

The purpose of the PAM Achievement Award is to recognize those Community members who have made outstanding contributions to the Community. The professional work of recipients is marked by distinction and dedication to librarianship in astronomy, mathematics, and/or physics.

This year our award goes to an individual who has consistently demonstrated their passion for education, service, and professional engagement. Our recipient is committed to supporting undergraduate access to information in the sciences, in particular by promoting affordable resources. As their supervisor noted, their “sharing of open and subscribed resources was invaluable during the pandemic when students could not access print course reserves, and also represents thousands of dollars of potential student savings.” They have served on statewide committees with other faculty to develop open educational materials for highly enrolled courses in mathematics: college-level algebra, calculus and pre-calculus.

These teams developed additional open material to support high-demand advanced mathematics courses as well, including both abstract and linear algebra, and ordinary differential equations. Notably, the products of this effort include compiled and/or originally produced ancillary content—videos, interactive machine-graded exercises, problem sets, worksheets, and lab activities—as well as conventional textbook material. The products of this effort, hosted on the OER Commons, are freely available beyond the recipient’s home state, serving as an invaluable resource for the larger international community of mathematics educators and their students. Our recipient and their colleagues described the process of building course content in a book chapter—which, of course, is an open access work itself.

At their home institution, our recipient teaches two for-credit university courses addressing scientific communication, information formats, and effective bibliographic search strategies in PAM and other scientific disciplines. In 2022 they received the Virginia Tiefel Achievement in Teaching Award from their parent university library system, which “recognizes outstanding teaching achievements that advance the mission of the library…over five or more years. It is the highest honor given by University Libraries to recognize quality, innovation and impact in all aspects of teaching.”

Regionally, they have supported the professional development of their colleagues by serving on myriad committees to organize and run the Great Lakes Science Boot Camp for Librarians, which they also co-chaired from 2019 to 2021. Within PAM, they have hosted a Professional Development Committee PAMinar, and organized numerous other educational online seminars and “Pint-Sized PAMinars.” They were recognized with the SLA Presidential Citation for their work on the 2020 Annual Conference Advisory Committee.

Our awardee is also distinguished by a long-standing commitment to interdisciplinary endeavors and public outreach, connecting PAM disciplines with other areas of study in the sciences and beyond. They explored how mathematicians and physicists are portrayed in popular media and published their findings in CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture, a journal focused on theory and criticism of comparative literature and cultural studies. They successfully collaborated with public library colleagues to host Science Cafés, introducing enthusiastic youngsters to physics and chemistry through crowd-pleasing “loud, flashy, and/or messy” events. This year, they successfully applied for their parent institution’s Growing Research Opportunities (GRO) Academy, a program to develop leaders of effective interdisciplinary research teams

A long-time PAM member who has worked with the recipient noted that they have been “a regular, consistent, active, dedicated member of PAM… [who] has significant expertise on PAM librarianship and is always willing to share and help others.” Their supervisor believes that their “open and positive attitude” and “competence, kindness, and generosity to…colleagues are a large part of what has made our team successful,” praising their efforts to improve internal communication and uplift organizational culture “in ways that feel light and fun…when the subject matter could feel hectoring or condescending with a different approach.” She notes that our awardee “says “yes” to an astonishing number of requests for teaching, service, and added duties, and still manages to perform excellent work across the board.”

On behalf of the PAM Awards Committee, it is my great pleasure to present the 26th PAM Achievement Award to Danny Dotson!

[Presented at the 2024 SLA PAM Annual Business Meeting, July 22, 2024]

2024 SLA PAM Awards Committee:

Nancy R. Curtis, Chair,

NuRee Lee,

Zach Lannes.

The following awards were given at the Annual Business Meeting of the Physics Astronomy Mathematics Community of the Special Libraries Association, held June 20, 2023 on Zoom. The following citations were read:

2023 Division Award: Science Librarianship and Social Justice

The PAM Division Award is granted to an individual or organization that provides a significant contribution to the literature of physics, mathematics or astronomy or to honor work that demonstrably improves the exchange of information in physics, mathematics or astronomy. The contribution should also significantly benefit libraries or enhance the ability of librarians to provide service.

This year’s PAM Division Award is being given to recognize a series of articles and the five librarians who wrote them, three of whom are PAM members. This scholarship is helping STEM librarians understand and incorporate critical concepts into their practice. Published in Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship (ISTL) from 2020 to 2022, these four columns center justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion in their discussion of science librarianship practice, while scaffolding the discussion and contextualization of social justice concepts in science and librarianship from foundational to capstone levels.

A member of the ISTL editorial board called this series a set of “transformative articles to provide a baseline for communication among PAM and STEM librarians more generally to talk about equity, inclusion, diversity, and belonging.”

The stated goals of the columns are:

• “To engage readers in a meaningful and intentional conversation around EDI and ask them to reflect on their own practices”
• “To expose readers to scaffolded social justice concepts as pertinent to serving and teaching people of diverse backgrounds” and
• “To demonstrate the relevance of social justice concepts by providing examples of how they intersect with science librarianship”

The series is already having an impact on the profession. Although only recently published, other scholars have begun citing the columns in their work, and three of the articles are in ISTL’s top-twenty downloads, including the #1 and #3 most downloaded articles since 2020. The ISTL editorial team is currently co-editing a special issue on “Science Librarianship and Social Justice” so popular, attracting an extraordinary number of submissions on a gamut of topics, that it may need to become a double issue. The authors will extend the reach of their work further through a panel presentation and audience discussion at the 2023 ACRL Science and Technology Section Annual Program.

For significantly enhancing the ability of librarians to provide equitable and inclusive service, and for demonstrably improving the exchange of information by providing context and a common vocabulary to topics of justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion in science librarianship- on behalf of the PAM Awards Committee, it is my great pleasure to present the 34^th PAM Division Award to the “Science Librarianship and Social Justice” series, written by Jeffra Bussmann, Isabel Altamirano, Samuel Hansen, Nastasha Johnson, and Gr Keer!

Presented at the 2023 SLA PAM Annual Business Meeting

Tuesday, June 20

Kelly Durkin Ruth, Chair, 2023 PAM Awards Committee

on behalf of Nancy Curtis, Kelly Durkin Ruth, and Emma Moore, Members

2023 Achievement Award: Jenny Hart

The purpose of the PAM Achievement Award is to recognize those Community members who have made outstanding contributions to the Community, and whose professional work is marked by distinction and dedication to librarianship in astronomy, mathematics, physics, and/or computer science.

This year our award goes to an incredibly deserving individual, whose support of PAM has been continuous, reliable, and meaningful. A PAM member described the recipient as “always willing to step up,” and this person has done so for years in whatever capacity needed.

Our recipient was elected PAM Treasurer and served her term in 2014 and 2015. Since then, in addition to her many years supporting PAM professional development and mentorship initiatives like the Conference Buddy Program, which so many of us have benefited from, she has served multiple years as a co-moderator for the PAM Math and Vendor roundtables at the SLA Annual Conference. This year, she co-moderated the session titled “Unique Teaching Ventures: Making Inroads in New Areas” at the joint MLA/SLA conference in Detroit.

Her record of service to science librarianship extends beyond PAM, as she has been a member or Co-Chair of the Great Lakes Science Boot Camp Planning Committee since 2017. As she and her co-authors noted in their 2021 College & Research Libraries article, specialized regional conferences like the Boot Camp “improve librarian ability to gain knowledge of the current state of research; help librarians identify opportunities for engagement; and help librarians develop strategies to enhance research support at their home institutions” while minimizing economic barriers to attendance. She has also served on the STEM Librarian Collaborative Planning Committee.

She joined the University of Chicago Library in 2008, as a science reference librarian with a focus on the physical sciences. In 2011, she accepted the position of Librarian for Mathematics, Computer Science, Physics and Statistics, and Manager of Eckhart Library at the University of Chicago.

Since joining her library, her significant contributions include a countless list of instruction, workshops, outreach activities including, and more recently taking the lead on, data instruction in the sciences. Today, she is a member of the Library’s Research Data Working Group, Transformative Agreements Working Group, the Research and Information Services Team and Social Media Managers Group, to name a few. 

She plays a critical role in collection development at the University of Chicago Library, as well as in thinking about library spaces on campus. In 2013, she was the library lead on the renovation of the Eckhart Library, which resulted in a rethought and refreshed space for faculty, students and staff while continuing to provide access to critical resources. More recently, she contributed to the renovation of office suites for the sciences and social sciences librarians.

The recipient’s supervisor said that “Jenny is an amazing librarian and colleague, and I am very grateful that I have the opportunity to work alongside her at the University of Chicago Library. Always willing to think creatively about, and contribute to, initiatives, projects and programs, Jenny brings a wealth of knowledge to everything that she does and everything that we do as a team at the Library. Jenny is incredibly respected by her colleagues and looked to for her expertise and thoughtfulness.”

On behalf of the PAM Awards Committee, it is my great pleasure to present the 25^th PAM Achievement Award to Jennifer Hart!

Presented at the 2023 SLA PAM Annual Business Meeting

Tuesday, June 20

Kelly Durkin Ruth, Chair, 2023 PAM Awards Committee

on behalf of Nancy Curtis, Kelly Durkin Ruth, and Emma Moore, Members

2022 PAM Awards

PAM Achievement Award

The purpose of the PAM Achievement Award is to recognize those Community members who have made outstanding contributions to the Community, and whose professional work is marked by distinction and dedication to librarianship in astronomy, mathematics, physics, and/or computer science.

This year our award goes to an individual whose commitment and service to the Special Libraries Association and the Physics, Astronomy, and Mathematics Community has been unparalleled. First winning the IOP Travel Stipend in 2012, he went on to serve as Editor of the PAM Bulletin, a member of the PAM Awards Committee, and the chair of the PAM Awards Committee. In 2017 he won the Special Libraries Association Rising Star Award, and continued his dedication to PAM by fulfilling the three-year term of Chair-Elect, Chair, and Past-Chair for the PAM Community from 2018 through 2020, all while recruiting, welcoming, and mentoring new members to PAM. From conference talks to poster presentations to journal articles, his contributions to our profession have been remarkable and numerous. A PAM member said that this year’s awardee “has been a vital source of support for many early-career librarians in PAM. One of the many ways he’s made his mark on our division is by intentionally reaching out to new members and getting them involved with leadership roles. I connected with the award winner as a new librarian at a time when I questioned my future in the profession, and with his support and encouragement he influenced me to stay and grow and fulfill my potential as a STEM librarian. Like many others, I am grateful for his mentorship and friendship.”

In addition to exceptional service to SLA and PAM, our award recipient recently took on a new position as Associate University Librarian for Research and Engagement at the Robert W. Van Houten Library at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. His supervisor said: “As the AUL, John will focus on outreach to the NJIT community to support the curricular needs and scholarly endeavors and expand new initiatives and partnerships with faculty, students, and administrators. Additionally, John will work toward creating a transformative library space to maximize exploration, experimentation, and implementation of new service approaches in a new normal academic library environment. It has been a pleasure getting to know John. I have found him to be compassionate and motivated. He is pleasant and insightful, making him a joy to collaborate and work with. He displays enthusiasm and professionalism in everything he does, including interactions with the team he supervises. Success depends on strong people skills and a lifelong learning attitude; John possesses these traits, and I am fortunate to have John join my team. I have no doubt he will be a tremendous asset during his tenure at NJIT.”

While John gifts us with his tremendous scholarship, commitment to SLA, and support to PAM, he is also a delightful presence at PAM’s social events and well known for excelling at games and trivia. His many triumphs at PAM game nights and his appearance on the nationally televised quiz show “The Chase,” illustrate that John not only offers PAM his leadership and professional expertise, but a sense of fun and friendship as well.

On behalf of the PAM Awards Committee, it is my great pleasure to present the 24^th PAM Achievement Award to John Kromer!

PAM Division Award

The PAM Division Award is granted to an individual or organization that provides a significant contribution to the literature of physics, astronomy, mathematics, and/or computer science, or to honor work that demonstrably improves the exchange of information in one or more of these areas.

The recipient of this year’s PAM Division Award has a long history of disseminating physics information. They first began publishing in 1874, known then as the Physical Society of London, and then began working in conjunction with another society, the Institute of Physics, in 1921. For over 100 years, IOP has been growing into a global nonprofit publisher who partners with numerous academic societies and research organizations, including CERN, the American Astronomical Society, and the London Mathematical Society, to publish over 100 scholarly journals as well as proceedings and books.

IOP Publishing is committed to making their organization and their journals more inclusive, including improving the gender and geographical diversity of editorial stakeholders and creating targets for journals to diversify their editorial boards and reviewer pools. They are exploring ways to create a physics community that is more diverse and inclusive through double-blind peer review, implicit bias training, and other initiatives. They publish literature dedicated to diversity, equity, and inclusion such as the forthcoming book An Astronomical Inclusion Revolution: Advancing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Professional Astronomy and Astrophysics.

Scientific researchers in developing countries receive support from IOP Publishing through their involvement in Electronic Information for Libraries, a nonprofit organization that works to help developing countries gain access to information as well as through their participation in the International Network for Advancing Science and Policy’s Program for the Enhancement of Research Information, a program to give zero or low cost electronic journal access to developing countries. They also take part in the eJournals Delivery Service offered by The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste to help provide scientists in low-income countries with access to current physics and mathematics literature.

Strong supporters of open physics, IOP Publishing produces 27 fully open access journal titles and over 50 hybrid open access titles. The Unified Astronomy Thesaurus, an open thesaurus that won the 2021 PAM Division Award, was developed by a community that included IOP Publishing. Additionally, they have made a commitment to prioritizing sustainability through being signatories in the UN’s sustainable development goals and through their environmental and energy policies that promote environmental good practice.

In addition to their many forward-thinking and innovative initiatives, IOP Publishing has had a longstanding tradition of fostering a strong partnership with PAM. They have been steadfast and enthusiastic collaborators for PAM educational sessions and special events. For many years, IOP Publishing has graciously hosted the PAM Suite, providing us with invaluable opportunities to network with our colleagues and enjoy a restorative break from the rigors of the Annual Conference.

For their contributions connecting scholars to literature all over the world, on behalf of the PAM Awards Committee, I am pleased to present the 33^rd PAM Division Award to IOP Publishing! 

PAM Awards Committee:

Nancy Curtis, Laurie Neuerburg, Kelly Durkin Ruth

The deadline for PAM Awards nominations was April 1, 2022, and it is now closed. Thank you to all who submitted nominations!

– Laurie J. Neuerburg