(via the Illinois Library Association)
The Western Illinois University (WIU) Librarian Faculty, Jeff Hancks, Michael Lorenzen, Krista Bowers Sharpe, Julia Thompson, Sean Cordes, Michelle Holschuh Simmons, Brian Clark, and Hunter Dunlap, are collectively the 2025 recipients of the Illinois Library Association (ILA) Illinois Academic Librarian of the Year Award. A ninth WIU librarian who also lost their job has successfully found a position outside Illinois and chooses to be an anonymous award recipient. The award, presented by the ILA Illinois Association of College and Research Libraries (IACRL) Forum, recognizes Illinois librarians who make an outstanding statewide contribution to academic or research librarianship and to library development. The award is sponsored by Library Juice Academy.
When the WIU library faculty were terminated in the summer of 2024 (effective May 2025), they began a large-scale collaboration to draw attention to the significant role of librarians in Higher Education. Librarian Krista Bowers Sharp created a YouTube series called “Library Magic” to emphasize the role and contributions of academic librarians. The library faculty also adopted a Resolution of Concern, writing numerous letters to WIU accreditation agencies about the deleterious effects on student learning that were engendered by the terminations.
The efforts of the WIU Faculty Librarians to emphasize the important role of librarians in academia have received national attention. The librarians received media training from IFT/UPI union partners and were interviewed by television, radio, web, podcast, and print outlets, including The Washington Post, Vox, Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Education, and local NPR affiliates. The librarians’ efforts garnered over 10,000 supporters, who submitted petitions to the WIU Administration to attempt to have the cataclysmic decision reversed.
To read the full press release, please go here. More information about the Illinois Academic Librarian of the Year Award is available here.