Distinguished Service
George Huffman, director of learning resources, Amarillo College, is the winner of the TLA Distinguished Service Award in honor of his many contributions to the development of Texas libraries. Mr. Huffman has been an active member of TLA for over 20 years during which time he has been a key leader in the development of many innovative projects at his institution as well as among other libraries both in the Panhandle and across the state. Mr. Huffman's letters of nomination noted his "low-keyed" but tireless efforts to establish networks for cooperation and resource sharing between all types of libraries.During the 1980s and 1990s, due in large part to Mr. Huffman's efforts, Panhandle libraries joined together to form the Harrington Library Consortium, a library resource-sharing network that continues to be a model for multitype library cooperation. In recent years, Mr. Huffman has served on the Libraries Advisory Subcommittee for the Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund Board. This advisory committee has designed a series of grant programs that have brought millions of dollars to public and community college libraries to fund Internet access. As a result, nearly every public and academic library in Texas has been connected to the Internet.
The TLA Distinguished Services Award is presented in recognition of significant contributions to Texas libraries and is presented only in those years when the TLA Awards Committee feels a nomination is of significant stature to warrant presentation of the award.
LIBRARIAN OF THE YEAR 
This year's recipient of the TLA Librarian of the Year Award is Louella
V. Wetherbee, an independent library management consultant who has worked
in Texas libraries in a series of notable positions for the past 28 years.
She began her career as the Latin American projects coordinator at the University
of Texas at Austin General Libraries. She went on to serve as the executive
director of the AMIGOS Bibliographic Council. Her most recent position was
as associate library director at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical
Center in Dallas. Ms. Wetherbee is also well-known to Texas librarians for
her outstanding service as the chair of the Libraries Advisory Subcommittee
of the Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund (TIF) Board. In this capacity,
Ms. Wethebee presided over the meticulous design of a grants program that
has brought over $20 million to Texas public and community college libraries
in the last two years.
The TLA Librarian of the Year Award is presented to an individual who has provided outstanding service in one or more areas of the library profession.
Outstanding
Service to libraries
Jann Brown and Will Richardson, members of the board of trustees of the
Westbank Community Library District, have received the 1999 TLA Outstanding
Service to Libraries Award in honor of their work creating public library
districts in Texas.
After years of searching for ways to better fund their library, Ms. Brown and Mr. Richardson led a campaign in the last session of the Texas Legislature to pass a bill that would allow local residents to vote to approve the creation of public library districts. Until that time, similar legislation existed in 22 other states, but not Texas. The efforts paid off when, in the final moments of the session, the 75th Legislature approved Senate Bill 1674 by Gonzalo Barrientos of Austin. Since passage of the bill, four communities have approved the creation of library districts: Westbank, Salado, Wells Branch, and Benbrook.
The efforts of Ms. Brown and Mr. Richardson are significant because the district establishes an entirely new source of funding and governance for Texas public libraries, which rank near the bottom in per capita funding nationally.
The TLA Outstanding Service to Libraries Award is presented annually to individuals who are notable lay advocates of libraries.
PROJECT OF THE YEAR
Power Card, a project of the Houston Public Library which has enrolled many
thousands of new library users and dramatically increased public awareness
of the library, is the winner of the 1999 TLA Library Project of the Year
Award.
When mayor Lee Brown took office in January 1998, he announced his ambitious goal to "put a library card in the hand of every school age child" in Houston. The library readily seized the opportunity to launch a major membership drive featuring not a library card, but a bright orange Power Card (designed by the local power company). The entire library staff enthusiastically reached out to other schools, media, community groups, and others to promote library use. The library has used a variety of innovative projects to promote the card, including jewelry, displays, rap songs, and specially-designed "Packing the Power" t-shirts. The campaign also used billboards and public service announcements on television and radio that reiterated the slogan: "Pack the Power. Get a Library Card." In the first six months of the project, the number of juvenile card holders increased from 100,000 to 150,000 and circulation among children increased by 13 percent and continues to climb. (Barbara Gubbin is shown displaying the award.)
The TLA Project of the Year is given annually in recognition of a project that exemplifies the highest levels of achievement, professional standards, and inspiration to other libraries.
