Mimi O’Malley and Virginia Mattingly

The 2012 Kentucky Chapter member awards were announced at the November 2nd business meeting in Lexington. Mimi O’Malley, Publishing Specialist at The Learning House, received the 2012 Larry Besant Professional Award and Virginia Mattingly, Cybrarian at the University of Louisville’s Brandeis School of Law, received the 2012 Outstanding Chapter Member Award.

The Kentucky Chapter Professional Award recognizes an individual or group in recognition of a specific achievement in the field of librarianship or to the subject field in which they serve. It was renamed this year to honor Larry Besant, a long standing member and contributor to Kentucky’s SLA Chapter who passed away last spring. He retired as Director of Libraries at Camden-Carroll Library at Morehead State University in 2006.

During her tenure at The Learning House, Mimi O’Malley has assumed roles from a publishing specialist, online learning assessment developer, course content writer, and professional development administrator. Voted “Best in Track for Faculty and Professional Development and Support” at the 18th Annual SLOAN Consortium (SLOAN-C) International Conference on Online Learning, Mimi will unveil an online instructors’ readiness questionnaire for program coordinators to gauge both an on-campus instructor readiness to teach online as well as pinpoint potential training areas. Mimi is the author of the 2012 release of More than Petticoats: Remarkable Kentucky Women; It Happened in Kentucky and more than 50 newspaper and magazine articles. Both titles were featured at the 2012 Kentucky Book Festival in Frankfort this month.

The Kentucky Chapter Outstanding Member Award honors a member for a notable or important contribution to the Kentucky Chapter of Special Libraries Association. To qualify, nominees must be a Chair or coordinator of a special project.

Virginia Mattingly, this year’s recipient has been the SLA Kentucky Chapter’s webmaster for many years, and has truly brought the chapter into the 21st century. She was the lead for the upgrade and switch to the WordPress format for the blog and website, and has also served as Director at Large. She has been an active member of the Communications Committee. She has shared her expertise through presentations at SLA’s Annual Conference, several Kentucky Library Association fall conferences, Chapter meetings, and at many other venues. She has also published numerous articles.

According to nominator, Constance Ard, “Virginia works hard throughout the community and throughout the association to deliver valuable information that highlights the opportunities and abilities of information professionals. She willingly shares her knowledge and experience for the benefit of contributing to the knowledge and understanding of new information challenges.”