Springshare and the Special Libraries Association (SLA) Academic Division announced this week that the Mervyn H. Sterne Library at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) is the 2012 recipient of the Springshare Innovation in Academic Libraries Award.
This annual award recognizes a new program or service that demonstrates an innovative approach to academic librarianship. The award was presented to the Sterne Library for the development of its highly successful Business Research Certificate Program. The awards committee was impressed with “the academic and innovative aspects of [the] Business Research Certificate Program.”
The Business Research Certificate Program was designed by Sterne Library Associate Librarian Jeff Graveline in 2010 to improve business information literacy within the UAB School of Business. The non-credit program consists of a series of hands-on sessions covering a wide range of business topics from company and industry research to demographics and consumer buying patterns.
Completing the program will help students not only with their UAB coursework, but also will benefit them when they leave UAB by making them life-long critical thinkers. Graveline continues to teach the program during the fall and spring semesters.
Participation in the Business Research Certificate Program is not limited only to students. Numerous UAB faculty and staff have completed the program. Despite receiving no academic credit for completing the program, students are enthusiastic about it. One student wrote, “There is no telling how much this class will benefit me in my future,” and another said “Obtaining my Business Research Certificate has been more beneficial to me than I could have ever imagined!”
The program will be offered again during the fall 2012 semester. You can find more information about it here.
UAB is an internationally renowned research university – a first choice for education and health care located in Birmingham, Alabama. The Mervyn H. Sterne Library is the main research library at UAB and supports the academic needs of the University for all disciplines except medicine. The Sterne Library’s collection holds 1.69 million volumes and serves more than 17,000 students.
The Special Libraries Association (SLA) was founded in 1909 in the state of New York and is now the international association representing the interests of 11,000 information professionals in over eighty countries worldwide. Based in Miami, Springshare’s mission is to develop practical web 2.0 applications built specifically for libraries and educational institutions.