Shapiro Award
The Shapiro Library Staff Innovation Award is an annual award presented to a Fondren staff member (or project group/committee) who has developed an innovative program to provide library services at Rice University or who has shown exemplary service to the university.
The Fondren Library Travel, Training and Development Committee announced that Mang Sun, Systems Librarian at Fondren Library, is the recipient of the 2020 Shapiro Library Staff Innovation Award. Sun was honored for his work ensuring a successful migration of library data into a new system, among other contributions to keeping Fondren Library’s data warehouse secured and organized.
Reflecting the highly collaborative nature of their work, all 10 team members in the Woodson Research Center were honored this year with the 2021 Shapiro Library Staff Innovation Award. This marks the first time in its history that the award, which typically recognizes the exemplary efforts of a member of the Fondren Library staff, has gone to a group.
Staff Highlight - Data Curator for African American Studies
Fondren welcomed Dr. Portia Hopkins in July 2020, as the CLIR/DLF Postdoctoral Research Associate in Data Curation for African American Studies at Rice. Through a partnership between Rice’s CERCL and Fondren Library, and with generous support from CLIR and DLF, Dr. Hopkins is leading efforts in curating digital collections focused on African American activism and cultural expression in Houston. While some of the materials will be incorporated into Fondren’s collections, Dr. Hopkins is also empowering local communities to organize and preserve their own collections.
Dr. Hopkins holds a Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Maryland, is a subject matter expert in African American historic preservation (Texas and Maryland), and has lectured at Lee College, University of Houston-Clear Lake, Houston Community College, University of Maryland, and several other institutions.