Folio News Story
May 26, 2006

Innovative head librarian earns national kudos

Ernie Ingles recognized for leadership

by Caitlin Crawshaw
Ernie Ingles' accomplishments include spearheading efforts to link the U of A's library resources with that of other institutions and positioning the U of A to expand its collections beyond the capacity of most Canadian university libraries.
Ernie Ingles' accomplishments include spearheading
efforts to link the U of A's library resources with
that of other institutions and positioning the U of
A to expand its collections beyond the capacity of
most Canadian university libraries.

More than six million titles fill the shelves of University of Alberta libraries, making it the second largest collection in Canada. And with its numerous digital collections and initiatives with partner institutions in Alberta, the U of A library system is cutting edge, thanks in part to the efforts of its chief librarian.

Ernie Ingles was recognized this week by the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) with the 2006 CARL Award for Distinguished Service to Research Librarianship.

"It's a great honour. I've always thought that peer recognition, particularly within academia and universities, was one of the most important kinds of recognition," said Ingles, who is also the U of A's vice-provost.

Among his many achievements, Ingles has taken a leadership role in many initiatives to link libraries from post-secondary institutions province-wide, which provides students with greater access to resources from other institutions. These enterprises include the NEOS Library Consortium, The Health Knowledge Network, and the upcoming Lois Hole Campus Alberta Digital Library, a multi-million dollar venture funded by the provincial government.

"It's one of the largest and most unique initiatives in North America. Basically what it does is bring all of the colleges, smaller institutions and so forth, up to the same standards of access that again the U of A would have. So everybody benefits in terms of the amount of resources their students have access to," said Ingles.

According to U of A Provost Dr. Carl Amrhein, Ingles is "one of North America's leading chief librarians."

"This award is recognition of the central role he has played in university research libraries adjusting to the universities supplied by the digital world."

Amrhein added that Ingles has also ensured that the U of A's library system will continue to thrive.

"Ernie has positioned our library so that we continue to receive major donations of books and manuscripts through the Books and Records Depository facility. Many of our peer institutions have stopped collecting, because they didn't make proper allowances for space," he said. "We, in fact, are now in a very enviable situation in being able to build our collection by acquiring other collections."

Ingles, who has been working in research universities for more than three decades, has also published widely as a bibliographer. In addition to this honour, Ingles was a recipient of the Queen's Jubilee Medal in 2003.

"The breadth and depth of Ernie's contributions to research librarianship are hard to summarize in a brief citation. He is a leader of great vision with an enormous capacity to create change," said CARL President John Teskey.

According to Amrhein, the quality of the U of A's libraries benefits the university as a whole.

"We have one of the top-ranked teaching university research libraries in North America, and it provides out students and faculty and visitors an incredible research resource. And Ernie has played a central role in that."