John M. Saylor, director of the Engineering Library, wins distinguished service award

John M. Saylor, director of the Engineering Library and interim associate university librarian for scholarly communications and collections, has won the prestigious 2007 Homer I. Bernhardt Distinguished Service Award from the Engineering Libraries Division (ELD) of the American Society for Engineering Education.

Saylor was cited for his more than 35 years of leadership as an engineering librarian, his pioneering work in advancing the cause of digital libraries and open access initiatives, and his record of presentation, collaboration and publication. In addition, Saylor's professionalism and mentoring of numerous engineering librarians and his significant contributions to ELD were noted.

"The Bernhardt award is a wonderful acknowledgement of John's many creative contributions to the development of engineering librarianship over the past 30 years," said Jean Poland, associate university librarian for subject libraries. "John is an acknowledged and respected leader in the expansion of digital libraries in the sciences. As an early adapter, he has guided his colleagues at Cornell and throughout the country into the digital age. He is a strong force in librarianship and the open access movement."

Saylor has been the director of the Engineering Library since 1988. He joined the Cornell library staff in 1973.

The award is named for the late Homer I. Bernhardt, head of the Bevier Engineering Library at the University of Pittsburgh.

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