[398] LIBRARIAN HONORED FOR INNOVATIVE WOMEN’S STUDIES RESOURCE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 31, 2009
EDITORIAL CONTACT: Kristen Keene, Walker Library, 615-898-5376

LIBRARIAN HONORED FOR INNOVATIVE WOMEN’S STUDIES RESOURCE
MTSU’s Ken Middleton to Get Awards from Publisher, Library Group for Web Site

(MURFREESBORO) – Ken Middleton, user services librarian at MTSU’s James E. Walker Library, is the recipient of two prestigious awards in recognition of his significant contributions to the fields of library and information science and women’s studies.
ABC-CLIO, a premier education and library publisher of educational and reference products, will present Middleton with the 2009 ABC-CLIO Online History Award for his professional achievement in online historical reference highlighted by his development of Discovering American Women’s History Online, a Web-based historical research tool.
Middleton’s Web site was selected for its important role as a comprehensive gateway documenting the history of women in the United States. From this centralized resource, site users are offered numerous access points such as subject headings, formats and other resource discovery features to uncover primary documents in more than 40 formats, including photographs and artifacts.
The breadth of the collections available through Discovering American Women’s History Online covers all 50 states and dates ranging from the 1600s to the 2000s.
Middleton also is the recipient of the 2009 Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Women’s Studies Section (WSS) Award for Significant Achievement in Women’s Studies Librarianship. This honor is sponsored by Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group, a publisher of academic books, journals and e-books. It honors a major contribution to women’s studies librarianship.
ACRL is a division of the American Library Association (ALA), representing nearly 13,000 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.
“Three trends have fueled my interest in developing the site: the growing
number of archives, libraries and museums that are digitizing their materials; an increase in the use of primary sources in the classroom; and the very strong tendency of students to begin looking for materials online,” says Middleton. “Discovering American Women's History Online simplifies this process for students, and offers a much better starting point than a Google search.”


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Jennifer Gilley, chair of the WSS award committee and head librarian at Penn State University’s Elisabeth B. Blissell Library, praises Middleton’s Web site for its multiple browse and search options.
“Each collection is annotated and assigned subject headings to make it more accessible to women’s studies researchers,” Gilley says. “The awards committee predicts widespread use for this amazing resource.”
The ABC-CLIO award is a $3,000 cash prize and a citation. The WSS award is a $1,000 prize and a plaque. Middleton will receive both during the 2009 American Library Association Annual Conference in Chicago in July.
Middleton earned his master’s degree in library science in 1992 from the University of Tennessee. He joined the library faculty at MTSU in 1993. He developed a strong interest in women’s history while completing his master’s degree in history at MTSU. Middleton provides reference and research service at the Walker Library and also teaches library instruction classes for women’s history courses.


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ATTENTION, MEDIA: For a jpeg photo of Ken Middleton, contact Gina Logue in the MTSU Office of News and Public Affairs at 615-898-5081 or gklogue@mtsu.edu.