The Texas Digital Library (TDL) announced its annual TDL Awards at the opening plenary session of the 2023 Texas Conference on Digital Libraries on Tuesday, May 16.
The Texas Digital Library Awards honor Texas-based individuals and groups that have made outstanding contributions to the advancement of digital libraries. Digital libraries are defined broadly as access to digital collections from allied organizations such as museums, archives, historical societies, and other cultural heritage institutions.
Individual Impact Award: Allyssa Guzman, Digital Scholarship Librarian at UT Austin Libraries
The Individual Impact Award honors an individual who has made significant contributions and improvements related to the field of digital curation and digital scholarship. This year’s Individual Impact Award was awarded to Allyssa Guzman, Digital Scholarship Librarian at the University of Texas Libraries.
Guzman has served as a supervisor and mentor for three cohorts of Diversity Resident Librarians at UT Austin since 2018, and developed a program focused on personal and professional growth for the Residents. She implemented meaningful change and improved the program by extending the program from two to three years to better serve the Residents in their job search, as well as offering her guidance as Texas Digital Library launched their inaugural ACRL Diversity Resident program.
In addition to her leadership in the Residency program, Allyssa has led work on developing the new Scholars Lab at the Libraries, which will provide space and opportunities for learning, consultation, collaboration and research presentation to enhance multidisciplinary research and digital scholarship.
TDL Service Award: Colleen Lyon, Head of Scholarly Communication at UT Austin Libraries
The TDL Service Award is given at the discretion of the Texas Digital Library to an individual or group at a member institution doing exceptional work in the service of the Texas Digital Library consortium. This year’s TDL Service Award was awarded to Colleen Lyon, Head of Scholarly Communication at UT Austin Libraries.
Lyon has played an integral role in helping TDL staff and the TDL user community prepare for a major upgrade to our hosted repositories as a member of the TDL DSpace 7 Upgrades Task Force. She has also served as an exemplary inaugural rotation supervisor for our Resident Digital Librarian, Ima Oduok – providing crucial support for our fledgling Diversity Residency in Digital Libraries – and serving as a welcoming and supportive and expert supervisor to Ima on her DSpace rotation. Across these projects, Colleen contributed valuable time providing counsel, writing and reviewing documentation, preparing presentations, and testing software – all in the service of the TDL community and the library profession.
Lyon haws long been a collaborative partner to TDL, providing consultation and insights on a variety of fronts. Lyon lends expertise in Open Access, copyright and advocates for TDL while acknowledging its contributions within UT Libraries and to folks outside the consortium.
Congratulations to Allyssa Guzman and Colleen Lyon on their awards.
