The LITA/Library Hi Tech Awards Committee is pleased to select Alison Macrina as the 2020 recipient of the LITA/Library Hi-Tech Award. Macrina led the Tor Relay Initiative in New Hampshire, is the founder and executive director of the Library Freedom Project, and has written and taught extensively in the areas of digital privacy, surveillance, and user anonymity in the context of libraries and librarianship. In this role, Macrina was instrumental in creating the Library Freedom Institute, which trained its first cohort in 2018 and will train its third cohort in 2020. Macrina has also spoken on digital privacy and the work of the Library Freedom Project across the United States and published Anonymity, the first book in ALA’s Library Futures Series, in 2019.
The committee was fortunate to receive several outstanding nominations for the 2020 award. Macrina stood out in this strong pool of candidates for the broad reach and impact of her work. Digital privacy and anonymity are topics of significant public interest and affect multiple types of libraries as well as everyone who uses the Internet. Macrina has informed and trained a broad swath of professionals, within and beyond libraries, through her book, presentations, and training via the Library Freedom Project. We believe Macrina’s work embodies the purpose of the LITA/Library Hi Tech Award, which is intended to recognize “outstanding achievement in educating the profession about cutting edge technology within the field of library and information technology,” and we are delighted to recognize her with this award.
When notified she was this year’s recipient, Alison Macrina said “I am tremendously moved to be recognized by my colleagues in LITA. I do this work because I believe that librarians can help build a better world. I want to dedicate this award to the graduates of Library Freedom Institute. We are powerful together.”
Members of the 2020 LITA/Library Hi-Tech Award Committee are: Janet A. Crum (Chair), Brian K. Auger, Amy Kimura, Robert T. Wilson, and Tod A. Olson (Past Chair).
Thank you to Emerald Publishing for sponsoring this award.
