The college’s Robert Frost Library has been awarded the 2015 Excellence in Academic Libraries Award. A division of the American Library Association, the Association of College & Research Libraries, gives awards each year to university, college and community college libraries that it regards to be “outstanding in furthering the education missions of their institutions.” This year, Amherst College’s library, along with those of Purdue University and Santa Fe College, was granted the award.

The award recognizes the efforts of college librarians and staff to create academic libraries that further the educational mission of their parent institutions.

Frost, along with the other libraries, demonstrated “commitment to student learning, digital scholarship and data research services, with a focus on continuous innovation and engagement with the campus community,” said Mary Ellen K. Davis, the director of the Association of College & Research Libraries.

The award committee’s press release said that Frost “impressed the committee with its transformation to focus on its objectives of teaching students research skills, promoting and enabling universal access to information and creating a new model of academic publishing.” Frost has also been recognized for innovations such as its collaboration with the Information Technology department to collect and preserve digital informational resources.

The committee also noted that Frost facilitates active collaboration between faculty and library staff.

“Frost librarians are truly teaching collaboratively with their faculty,” said Steven Bell, chair of the award committee. Last year, 86 classes visited Frost’s archives and special collections, while librarians taught 221 class sessions. Moreover, several courses at the college are based entirely around exploration of the archives.

The Frost Library is also well-regarded for its “collegial group of staff who are working in concert with each other to have a common vision and a cooperative outcome,” said Bryn Geffert, the librarian of the college. “We pride ourselves on what we think is a pretty collegial culture in the library. Libraries are complex organizations with many different units — Access Services, Research and Instruction, Archives and Special Collections, Technical Services, among others — and they have a tendency to become siloed. We work really hard to have folks from different units in the library working collaboratively.”

Geffert said the award is a recognition of the work done by all library staff members. “Our library has an extraordinary staff,” Geffert said. “They’re exceptional in every way: smart, adaptable, selfless, creative and tireless. I take this award to be as much an ‘excellent library staff’ award as an ‘excellence in academic libraries award’.”

Students also praised the library staff.

“I’ve always admired how dedicated the research and instruction librarians are to helping students succeed, and that holds for all the library’s staff members,” said Katharine Rudzitis ’15, who serves as a student representative of the Library Committee. “All of the library’s staff has a passion for making Frost an integral part of our college community … and ensuring that students have the tools to learn and conduct research.”

In order to be considered for the award, schools must submit an application to the ACRL. Colleges are given the opportunity in the application to demonstrate how their library has effectively supported the educational mission of the institution and facilitated collaboration amongst the library’s different departments. Later this spring, the ACRL will send a delegation to the library to present the award along with the $3,000 prize. “We’re hoping to use the money for a celebration.” Frost will also be honored at the ACRL President’s Program at the American Library Association’s annual conference in San Francisco at the end of June.