UVI’s Director of Libraries, Judith V. Rogers, has been named the Caribbean Information Professional of the Year 2014 by the Association of Caribbean University, Research and Institutional Libraries (ACURIL).
In its awards announcement, ACURIL said Rogers was selected as a professional who made an outstanding national or regional contribution in an area of the information field, as demonstrated by excellence in performance, leadership, research, publication or a combination of these elements, and who has the distinguished ability to share that knowledge. ACURIL membership includes institution as well as individuals throughout the Caribbean and in countries bordering the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico.
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| Judith Rogers |
“To be recognized is really an honor,” said Rogers, who has been a member of ACURIL since 2002. “It’s just such a great thing coming from the professionals within ACURIL. This is a very established organization, with many, many excellent professionals involved who do significant work.” She said ACURIL includes about 300 institutional and individual members.
UVI Chief Information Officer Tina Koopmans lauded Rogers’ selection for the honor. “Ms. Rogers demonstrates the highest level of professionalism in librarianship,” she said. “She has earned this recognition from her dedication to the profession, her mentorship of young librarians, and outstanding leadership skills. The University is a better place because of her work.”
Koopmans also noted that Rogers has led initiatives to assess the performance of the libraries, been a leader in the HBCU Library Alliance, and was a leader on an ILMS grant to provide master degree level training for librarians through the territory.
Rogers will receive her award, along with other ACURIL 2014 honorees, at the association’s 44th Annual Conference set for June 8 to 12, in Nassau, Bahamas. The conference theme is “Libraries, Archives and Museums: Gateway to Information Literacy & Cultural Heritage.” More than 300 librarians, archivists, curators, museologists, documentalists, professors, researchers, educators, students, and members of the information technology and knowledge management constituents from the Caribbean and Latin America, Canada and the U.S., and from as far away as South Africa are expected to participate.
According to ACURIL, Rogers has been involved with the Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC) project since 2004, as founding member of the project and co-director for implementation and promotion. She assisted with development of the initial grant proposal, and has continued collaboration for creating a newspaper archive for the region. In 2014, the dLOC project celebrates its 10th Anniversary.
She is also a member of the Advisory Council of the Virgin Islands Caribbean Cultural Center (VICCC).
In 2006, UVI’s library on St. Croix was selected as an institutional member of ACURIL’s Executive Council and Rogers served as the academic libraries representative on the council until 2009. She also chairs the ACURIL Special Interest Group on Information Technologies, for which she has continuously coordinated and presented a variety of topics in ACURIL’s annual conference.
Rogers’ career in libraries at UVI began in the 1970s, when she worked as a student assistant in the library while enrolled in a secretarial program at the then College of the Virgin Islands. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Augusta College in Georgia, and earned a Master in Library and Information Science degree from the University of South Carolina in 1991.
Rogers served as UVI’s St. Croix Campus Librarian from 1994-2005, was manager of Learning Resources and Faculty Technology Services on St. Croix from 2005-2012, and was named UVI’s director of Libraries and Information Technology in 2013. In this position, she provides oversight for library staff and operations of the two campus libraries, and plans and implements projects to achieve strategic objectives.
Details on the ACURIL and its upcoming annual meeting are available from this website: http://acuril.uprrp.edu.