Front row left to right: Dr. Ellis Beteck, AFIT Library Director and Dr. Adedeji Badiru,
Graduate School Dean. Library staff left to right: Wheeler Hall, reference librarian;
Charles Clausen, serials technician; Renate Lester, research librarian; Lauren Erdmann-Rued,
circulation technician; April Cottrell, technical services librarian; Kathleen Siry, chief of technical services;
Amy High, chief of reader services; Richard Mansfield, electronic resources librarian;
Sara Craycraft, research librarian. (Contributed photo)

The Federal Library and Information Network (FEDLINK) selected the D’Azzo Research Library for the 2019 Federal Library/Information Centers of the Year award in the large library/information center category. The award recognizes the many innovative ways that federal libraries fulfill the information demands of the government, business, and scholarly communities.

The D’Azzo Research Library, a joint effort between the Air Force Institute of Technology’s Academic Library and the Air Force Research Laboratory’s (AFRL) Technical Library, was honored for increasing information access and outreach to AFIT students and faculty, AFRL engineers and scientists, and the global research community.

Federal libraries and staff throughout the United States and abroad compete for the awards every year, and FEDLINK hosts the annual award winners at a recognition ceremony in Washington, D.C. Unfortunately, this event had been postponed over the last few years, so, in an effort to honor the winners from 2019-2022 in person, a special ceremony was held this year at the Library of Congress.

In July 2023, Ms. Annette Sheppard, AFRL Library Director and Dr. Ellis Beteck, AFIT Library Director travelled to Washington, D.C. to participate in FEDLINK’s recognition award ceremony. Dr. Carla Hayden, 14th Librarian of Congress, was on hand to present remarks at the ceremony.

“The library is extremely honored to receive this important award—The 2019 Large Library Information Center of the Year. We are immensely grateful to be recognized by FEDLINK for the hard work, innovation and creativity of the D’Azzo Research Library. To this end, it is an honor to receive recognition for our work, and the biggest appreciation goes to the entire D’Azzo Research Library team whose efforts helped the library to achieve this significant milestone. We are thrilled and grateful to receive this prestigious award,” Beteck said.

The D’Azzo Research Library was recognized for achievements in 2019 which included: collaborating to purchase more than 23 databases and journal collections, saving more than $382,000; staff of 13 responding to 5,612 reference requests and teaching 36 academic research classes to 532 participants while completing a library space reconfiguration that increased visits by eight percent. Also in fiscal year 2019, the library launched its institutional repository, AFIT Scholar, a single, central, searchable database and delivered 36,850 thesis and dissertation downloads to 2,486 institutions in 166 countries.

“We are striving to meet the needs of the faculty, students and researchers and we continue to provide information resources and create the opportunity to develop user-defined, open spaces – places where users can collaborate and work together,” Beteck said.

“We believe the faculty, students and researchers will find the progress that we have made to define the role of the library in the 21st century research library within the Air Force Institute of Technology and the Air Force Research Laboratory invaluable. In addition and perhaps more remarkable, we are committed to constantly monitor and assess existing progress and anticipate future pathways to the demonstration and growth of the library collections and learning spaces,” Beteck concluded.