September 02, 2008
Rosemary LaSala, Government Documents and Reference Librarian
for the St. John's University's Rittenberg Law Library is the
2008 recipient of the NYLA/GIRT Mildred Lowe Award. The
Mildred Lowe Award is presented annually by the New York Library
Association/Government Information Round Table to a librarian who
has made a significant contribution to government documents
librarianship, access to government information, and/or other
encouragement of documents use in New York State libraries.
The award is named in honor of Mildred Lowe, who was Dean of the
Library School at St. John’s University and a tireless advocate for
public access to government information. She was a prominent
member of the task force that produced the 1983 “Plan for Federal
Depository Library Service in New York State,” a document which has
been called a “model plan.”
This is the first time a librarian from St. John’s University
has received this award, which was presented to Ms. LaSala for her
exemplary service to the government information community in New
York State and her outstanding work her at St. John’s University’s
Rittenberg Law Library where she oversees its federal New York
State and United Nations documents collections while also providing
reference services and teaching legal research to undergraduate and
law students.
Ms. LaSala received her B.S. and M.L.S. degrees from St. John’s
University and has worked in the Rittenberg Law Library in a
variety of capacities for more than fifteen years. She was
recently elected Chair-Elect of the American Association of Law
Libraries Section on Government Documents and is nationally
recognized in the Government Documents community for her work with
federal, United Nations and New York State
documents.