Congratulations to CLA’s 2021 Aggiornamento Award Recipient, the Catholic Research Resources Alliance (CRRA). The Aggiornamento Award Presentation will be held during the CLA Virtual Conference on April 30, 2021 via Zoom from 10:30 – 11:30 am Eastern. Jennifer Younger, CRRA Executive Director, and Pat Lawton, CRRA Digital Projects Librarian, will be accepting the award on behalf of CRRA at the 2021 CLA Conference.
The Aggiornamento Award, established in 1980, is presented by the Parish and Community Library Services Section through the Aggiornamento Award Committee. It is awarded annually in recognition of an outstanding contribution made by an individual or an organization for the renewal of parish and community life in the spirit of Saint John XXIII (1881-1963).
About CRRA
The CRRA is a nonprofit (501c3) membership alliance of academic, diocesan and religious congregation libraries and archives sharing a mission "to provide enduring global access to Catholic research resources in the Americas." CRRA achieves this by creating the freely available portal to Catholic research resources with attention to unique and uncommonly held materials, supporting an extensive range of guides to exploring topics of Catholic interest, developing the digital collection of Catholic newspapers, and facilitating the sharing of resources and scholarship. CRRA achieves its mission through the leadership and expertise of its members and partners.
About Jennifer Younger
Jennifer became executive director in 2010 after serving as the Edward H. Arnold Director of Hesburgh Libraries, University of Notre Dame, one of the eight co-founders of CRRA. She previously served in various leadership positions in academic libraries. Together with her colleague, Pat Lawton, she will accept the Aggiornamento Award at the CLA 2021 Spring Virtual Conference on behalf of CRRA.
Jennifer’s experience positioned her well for leading CRRA. Her experience in academic libraries led to many successful partnerships with faculty, students, benefactors, and campus leaders around excellence in mission, and the founding of a new statewide consortium - the Academic Libraries of Indiana. She has served on governing boards for several associations, was named Alumnae of the Year in 2010 by the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Library and Information Studies for her vision in leadership and navigation of politically charged waters to create collaborative solutions to improve library systems and outreach.
About Pat Lawton
Pat currently serves as Special Projects Librarian and Head of the Digital Access Projects and Outreach Services at the Hesburgh Libraries of the University of Notre Dame and as Digital Projects Librarian for the Catholic Research Resources Alliance. She is an active member of the Catholic Library Association and Archival Resources for Catholic Collections. Pat has presented and published widely on collaborative and digital initiatives, with a special focus on ensuring the survival and discovery of religious archives.
Prior to her tenure at Notre Dame, Pat was a faculty member in the School of Information Science at the University of Pittsburgh and taught cataloging, the organization of information, and knowledge management courses online and face to face for the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She holds a BA in English and the MLS from Indiana University, and a Ph.D. in Library and Information Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.