Staff members of the St. Cloud State University Library recently received the 2023 Minnesota Academic Innovator’s Award by the Minnesota Library Association.
The award recognizes academic librarians or academic project teams who have made an outstanding recent contribution to advance the mission of an academic library in Minnesota through an innovative project, program or service.
The team of Robin Ewing, Jennifer Quinlan, Tom Steman, Melissa Prescott and Missy Northenscold were honored for making course materials and scholarships more affordable and accessible for SCSU and the Minnesota State system.
Examples include creating an open textbook for LIB courses, openly sharing learning objects and resources in the course management system and institutional repository, managing textbook donations, coordinating events and going above and beyond with their outreach. Their efforts have saved students over $10 million in course materials costs.
“The entire team of librarians and staff have strategically focused on all elements of affordability and Open Educational Resources/Open Access (OER/OA), with much success for our students, faculty, and staff,” their nomination letter stated. “This year (they) will be awarded an additional $100K in grant and project funding from Minnesota State to develop a Z-degree transfer pathway for all students in the Minnesota State system.”
