Southeastern library director receives 2009 Unsung Hero Award
by SOUTHEASTERN PUBLIC INFORMATION
February 19, 2009
Sharon L. Morrison, director of the Herny G. Bennet Memorial Library receives 2009 Unsung Hero Award
DURANT, Okla. -- Sharon L. Morrison, director of the Henry G. Bennett Memorial Library at Southeastern Oklahoma State University, will receive the Mountain Plains Library Association 2009 Unsung Hero Award.
She will be honored on April 2 at the Kansas Library Association/Mountain Plains Library Association Joint Conference in Wichita, Kansas. The MPLA region includes Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming.
The Unsung Hero award recognizes an individual in the MPLA region who has worked on a special project that has some significance to a community but which has not been eligible for a library award or which has for other reasons specified by the nominator not been recognized, to the degree it merits, by any library organization.
The award recognizes Morrison for her contributions in establishing the Textbook Reserve Program at Southeastern. This program, which began last fall, is designed to help offset the financial burden imposed on students by making available – free of charge -- required textbooks for basic courses.
"Sharon Morrison is very deserving of this award," said Southeastern president Michael D. Turner. "We are proud of her and for the recognition this honor brings to the University. The textbook reserve program continues to assist students as they work to achieve their educational goals and we believe this program will continue to grow and expand in the future."
"It is a great honor to receive this award and it is great recognition for the University," Morrison said. "But a number of other people -- including Sharon Robinson (Vice President for Student Affairs), Dr. Bryon Clark, (Dean of the School of Graduate and University Studies) Adam Lovell (president of the Student Government Association), and the library staff have been involved with the textbook reserve program from the very beginning. They deserve credit as well."
Since earning a degree in History and Political Science and a Master's of Library Science, Morrison has been active in the Texas Library Association, the Oklahoma Library Association, the American Library Association and the Oklahoma Division of the Association of College and Research Libraries. Her professional interests are in library administration, library assessment and distance education.