Franklin Receives 2020 Barnett Service Award

Dr. Janice R. Franklin (PhD 1988) was named the recipient of the TWU SLIS Ann Barnett Service Award for 2020. Currently the Dean of Library and Learning Resources at Alabama State University in Montgomery, Franklin will receive a plaque and cash award of $1,000. 

The Ann Barnett Service Award recognizes exemplary service to the principles and purposes of librarianship and professional education as demonstrated by sensitivity and responsiveness to people’s needs. This year's recipient actually had the opportunity to interact with the award's namesake, Ann Barnett, during her time in the TWU School of Library & Information Studies.

Franklin stood out to the award committee for many accomplishments. She successfully advocated for a $20 million expansion and renovation of her library, merging areas of librarianship, archives, and museums to create a “cultural learning place”. Additionally, Franklin received a National Endowment for the Humanities Challenge Grant to build a $2 million endowment establishing a National Center for the Study of Civil Rights and African American Culture at ASU.

She also led the effort to build a new Montgomery Interpretive Center on campus in partnership with the National Park Service. The center focuses on the history of the Selma to Montgomery Voting Rights March of 1965.

Franklin co-founded the HBCU Library Alliance, which developed digital library collections as a cooperative of over 100 historically black colleges and universities.

She currently serves as chair of the Network of Alabama Academic Libraries and a member of the University of Alabama School of Library Information Studies Advisory Board.

Franklin will be invited to attend and be honored at a future SLIS event since the traditional SLIS alumni reception at the Texas Library Association Annual Conference could not happen this year.

Page last updated 6:19 PM, June 11, 2020