WATERLOO – The Wilfrid Laurier University Library was awarded the 2011 Canadian Library Association/3M Canada Award for Achievement in Technical Services.

The award acknowledges the Library’s efforts to streamline workflow, reduce manual tasks and improve accuracy and accountability by automating the transfer of invoice data from the Library’s Voyager system to the Banner financial system. 

“The project was a successful partnership from its inception, and the team merits all kudos,” said University Librarian Sharon Brown. “It is very gratifying that this innovative but behind-the-scenes work has been acknowledged through such an important national award.” 

The Canadian Library Association/3M Canada Award recognizes achievement in technical services. In doing so, the award aims to encourage innovation and excellence, share new ideas and innovative approaches and raise the profile of technical services within libraries and across the Canadian library community. 

Laurier’s Voyager-Banner Financials Interface Project was made possible through the support of transitional funding, which enabled the Library to hire a contract programmer to begin the project. Initiated by Associate Librarian Carol Stephenson and Library Information Technology Manager Don Hamilton, the project team was led by Hamilton and included Helen Sagi and Grace Gao from the Library, Michael Kohut from Finance and Maite Vega from ITS. 

The award will be presented at the Canadian Library Association’s annual conference in Halifax in May. 

The Canadian Library Association is Canada’s largest national library association, representing the interests of public, academic, school and special libraries, professional librarians and library workers.