[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Trzeciak_Jeffrey.jpg” caption=”Jeffrey Trzeciak, chief librarian at McMaster University. File photo.”]McMaster University Libraries has won the prestigious Excellence in Academic Libraries Award. It is the first Canadian academic library to receive the award, granted yearly by the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL). The award was announced yesterday in Chicago.

“This is exciting news for us,” says university librarian, Jeffrey Trzeciak, who joined the Library in 2006 from Wayne State University. “Receiving this international recognition stands as tribute to the hard work and dedication of the staff here at the McMaster University Libraries. Their commitment to excellence and innovation is evident in all they do to advance the mission of the University. By winning this award, we can proudly say to our faculty, students and the entire campus community that you have — and deserve — the very best.”

Previous winners of the award include Georgia Tech University, the University of Virginia and Cornell University Library.

The award recognizes a library that represents excellence in one or more of the following categories: creativity and innovation in meeting the needs of their academic community; leadership in developing and implementing exemplary programs that other libraries can emulate; substantial and productive relationships with classroom faculty and students.

McMaster University Libraries is committed to building strong research collections and improving library spaces and services. The Library recently joined the Center for Research Libraries, which gives users access to millions of resources such as 800,000 doctoral dissertations from outside North America (including those of Albert Einstein, Dag Hammarskjold and other Nobel laureates) and some of the earliest African-American newspapers. As well, renovations and the reconceptualizing of library space resulted in the award-winning Mills Learning Commons and the acclaimed Health Sciences Library.

Despite the recent recognition, library staff will not be resting on their laurels. Plans are already in the works for a new learning commons in the H.G. Thode Library of Science & Engineering.

McMaster's complete application can be downloaded from the ACRL website.