December 2001

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Cerise Oberman Is Awarded Cerise Oberman, Dean of the Library and Information Services Librarian at the College at Plattsburgh, was recently honored with the Distinguished Librarian Award by the SUNY Board of Trustees. The Distinguished Librarian is the newest of the distinguished faculty ranks, and it is bestowed on librarians whose contributions have been transformational in creating a new information environment by providing access to information, sharing or networking information resources, and fostering information literacy. It promotes the achievement of personal excellence, groundbreaking professional progress, and wide-ranging benefit to the academic community. Additionally, it honors librarians who have earned the respect of members of the information professions as well as their academic professorial counterparts by the quality, vigor, and innovative nature of their thinking, their standards of performance, and the effectiveness of their initiatives. To be eligible for appointment, a candidate must have attained the rank of Full Librarian, and must have completed at least five years of full-time service at that rank on the nominating campus and at least ten years of service within the State University of New York. Dean Oberman has made major contributions at the national, University and local levels through her expertise in the area of critical thinking and active learning in information literacy instruction. Her work has helped her profession transform the understanding of bibliographic instruction and the role of the library in the information age. Dean Oberman joined the College at Plattsburgh in 1988. Prior to this, she held academic appointments at the University of Minnesota and the College of Charleston (South Carolina). She received her B.A. from the State University College at New Paltz and her M.Ln. from Emory University.