By Elizabeth Leonard

It is my pleasure to announce that Taras Pavlovsky, Dean of the Library at the College of New Jersey, is the recipient of the 2015 Distinguished Service Award, granted by the New Jersey Library Association’s College and University Section / Association of College and Research Libraries New Jersey chapter.  This honor is awarded annually to an individual who, by his or her outstanding contributions, has directly enriched the profession of librarianship in New Jersey.   

This award honors Taras’ leadership on behalf of libraries, librarians and the library profession in New Jersey.   Taras is currently the Dean of the Library at The College of New Jersey, and during his almost twenty years at TCNJ was integral to the design, construction and development of the current TCNJ library. He has also served as Interim Dean for TCNJ’s School of Arts and Communication and was a tenured library faculty member before accepting the position of Dean of the Library.

Taras has been a member of the Executive Committee of the Virtual Academic Library Environment of New Jersey (VALEnj) since 2007, and currently serves as the Chair. He has been an extremely effective leader in navigating VALE through strategic planning initiatives, securing VALE’s legal future through the development of a strategic partnership with NJEdge, as well as a memorandum of understanding (MOU) ensuring the continued development and maintenance of NJVID. He was one of the initiators of the VALE OLE project (now known as the VALID project) and has continued to push that project towards completion. Taras has represented academic libraries at the state level when he served on the NJ Library Network Review Board as well as through the development of partnerships with LibraryLinkNJ, and served on the search committee for the current NJ State Librarian, Mary Chute.

A formal presentation of the award will take place at the College and University Section’s luncheon at 12:30pm on Wednesday, April 22, 2015 at the NJLA Conference at Ocean Place Resort and Spa, Long Branch NJ.  Please join the NJLA CUS/ACRL-NJ Executive Board in offering Taras congratulations and appreciation for the many years he has dedicated to the academic library profession.

Elizabeth Leonard is Vice President/President-Elect of NJLA CUS/ACRL-NJ.  She is the Assistant Dean of Information Technologies, Resources Acquisition and Description at Seton Hall University.