HSLI Newsletter

2013 Starfish Thrower Award recipients Roy Jones and Deborah Rhue were recognized at the 2014 conference for their work on the 2013 joint meeting with the Midwest Chapter Medical Library Association. Roy serves as the HSLI Membership Committee Chair and Deborah served on the Publicity sub-committee fore the 2014 conference. Thank you Roy and Deborah!

Stacey Knight-Davis and Roy Jones

Stacey Knight-Davis and Deborah Rhue

Do you know someone who has made an important contribution of time and/or talent to our organization? Would you like to recognize a fellow member for their participation in HSLI? Nominate them for the 2014 Starfish-Thrower Award!

This award is based on the story of the child who “makes a difference” by throwing stranded star fish back into the ocean one at a time. Thus, the award recognizes the efforts and contributions of an individual HSLI member toward the good of the organization.

If you would like to nominate a colleague for the award, please download the Star-Thrower Award nomination form from the HSLI website.

The Starfish Thrower Award for 2013 was jointly awarded to Roy Jones and Deborah Rhue at the HSLI Business Meeting on October 7, 2013.

Roy and Deborah were instrumental in the success of the 2013 joint Midwest Chapter MLA/HSLI conference. Between them, they organized all of the people, resources, time, and talent needed to provide education, entertainment, and comfort for over 160 people. We applaud their work and thank them for their service to HSLI.

In his nomination, Roy was also recognized for the promotion of health sciences librarianship, being a teacher, and a mentor. The nomination letter closed with “Roy has helped so many of us like the starfish being saved from the beach.”

The Starfish Thrower Award was first given by HSLI in 2000. The name of the award refers to a story written in 1967 by Loren Eiseley. In the story, a man is walking along the beach picking up live starfish stranded by the tide and throwing them back into the ocean. Another character asks why such a daunting and never-ending task would be undertaken. The star fish thrower replies that he can make a difference for each starfish he saves. The starfish thrower exemplifies caring and generosity of spirit.

Jerry DeWitt, director of the Carle Foundation Hospital Library, won the Star Fish Thrower Award in 2012. Jerry was unable to attend the conference, and the award was presented at a meeting of the East Central Illinois Consortium. Jerry was recognized in his nomination for his work with HSLI, his promotion of health sciences librarianship, and his outreach to new librarians. Jerry has served on several HSLI planning conference planning committiees and has served as the Syed Maghrabi Scholarship Committee chair for many years.