UCSB Librarian Honored For Career Contributions To Development Of Women's Studies Librarianship

Sarah M. Pritchard, university librarian at UC Santa Barbara, has been honored with the Career Achievement in Women's Studies Librarianship Award by the Association of College and Research Libraries.

The award recognizes Pritchard's many contributions in support of women's studies and was presented -- along with a check for $1,000

-- June 18 in San Francisco at the convention of the American Library Association.

"Sarah Pritchard has been and continues to be a voice for women's studies librarianship," said Marlene Manoff, chair of the ACRL award committee.

"She is a forceful advocate for women's studies librarians and an articulate supporter of feminist concerns both within ALA and beyond."

And from Joan Ariel, also of the ACRL Women's Studies awards committee:

"Sarah Pritchard's contributions to development and vitality of the field of women's studies librarianship are unparalleled."

Pritchard came to UCSB in 1999 after a 10-year stint as director of libraries at Smith College in Northampton, Mass.

"We are very proud of Sarah and pleased that her important work in this field has been recognized in such a major way," said UCSB Chancellor Henry T. Yang.

Pritchard's career began in 1977 at the Library of Congress where she was a reference librarian and the specialist for women's studies.

Before leaving the Library of Congress in 1990, she had performed special assignments in collection development, instruction, automation, facilities planning, preservation and labor relations and had served as head of the microform reading room.

The author of more than 40 articles and reviews, Pritchard has also served on several scholarly editorial boards.

In 1997, she was presented with the ALA's Equality Award for leadership in advancing women's issues in the library profession and was also named the University of Wisconsin School of Library and Information Studies Alumna of the Year.

Active in ALA and ACRL matters, she is in her third term as a member of the ALA Council and chairs that organization's Standards Committee.

"Sarah's magnum opus," wrote one of her nominators, "... is the RLG Conspectus in Women's Studies (1990), which gave librarians, at last, a tool for evaluating their holdings in women's studies.

It served as a practical tool for assessing a collection's strengths and weaknesses and it was a visible symbol that women's

studies had come of age."