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ANNOUNCEMENTS AND NEWS Summer 2018

Dr. Hwa-Wei Lee, honored in Thailand: On April 27, 2018, Dr. Hwa-Wei Lee was awarded a Medal of Appreciation from Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn of Thailand during the official opening ceremony of the modernized library of Asian Institute of Technology in Bangkok, Thailand. Dr. Lee was the founding library director of AIT under the sponsorship of U.S. Agency for International Development from 1968 to 1975. In recent years, he served as a member of the the International Advisory Committee for the modernized library project.

Dr. Clara M. Chu, Mortenson Distinguished Professor and director of the Mortenson Center for International Library Programs at the University of Illinois Library at Urbana-Champaign, and an affiliated faculty at The iSchool of Illinois, has been selected as the 2018 recipient of the American Library Association’s Beta Phi Mu Award. This award is given in recognition of the achievement of a library school faculty member or another individual for distinguished service to education for librarianship. This annual award, which consists of $1,000 and a citation of achievement, is sponsored by the Beta Phi Mu International Library Science Honor Society. The jury acknowledged that her work is notable for extending beyond the classroom, and most recently in support of Southeast Asian refugees. Her background in language, literature, and psychology has helped support the local, national, and international community. Her transnational, ethnic minority and multilingual background has been especially important to her students as they develop their own courses of study and research. She has been the recipient of many awards, but her greatest reward comes from the respect and appreciation she has earned from her students, colleagues, and community members as well as her commitment to being an encouraging educator.