OCLC recognizes 2026 award recipients at ALA Annual Conference

During the 2026 ALA Annual Conference in Chicago, Illinois, OCLC recognized several recipients of OCLC-sponsored awards. OCLC's commitment to research and education includes furthering the advancement of librarianship and supporting awards of achievement.

OCLC is proud to recognize these 2026 award recipients:

LJ's 2026 Librarian of the Year Award – Kelvin Watson, Executive Director, Las Vegas–Clark County Library District

ALA Medal of Excellence – Amy Mikel, Senior Director of Customer Experience, Brooklyn Public Library

Core Career LIFT Award – Irina Stanishevskaya, Associate Professor, Head of the Collection Management Services, Metadata Librarian for Electronic Resources, UAB Libraries, The University of Alabama at Birmingham 

Core Career LIFT Award - Maddie Sharpe, Downtown Campus Librarian, North Dakota State University

Humphry/Forest Press Award for International Librarianship – Michael Dowling, Retired Director, International Relations and Chapter Relations, ALA

Margaret Mann Citation – Danny Joudrey, Professor and Director of Libraries and Librarianship Concentration at Simmons University, School of Library and Information Science, Boston, MA

Virginia Boucher Distinguished ILL Librarian Award – Brynne Norton, Head of Resource Sharing & Reserves, University of Maryland Libraries