I’m pleased to share the news that the American Library Association (ALA) has honoured me with the John Ames Humphry/OCLC/Forest Press Award for 2020. The award was presented virtually during the ALA’s Annual Conference in June – which unfortunately I missed.

Since 1987 the award, sponsored by OCLC/Forest Press, has been made annually to a “librarian or person who has made significant contributions to international librarianship.” The citation reads in part, “for over forty years, Dr. Lor has demonstrated his passion for international leadership through his teaching contributions and efforts to guide a new generation of globally-minded librarians. He has worked, often simultaneously, at multiple institutions across the globe teaching library science courses including international and comparative library and information studies”. The ALA’s press release and award citation can be read here.

According to the award’s web page, it was created on the occasion of the retirement of John Humphry as Executive Director of Forest Press, publisher of the Dewey Decimal Classification, to recognize Humphry’s far-ranging work to internationalize the English language editions of Dewey and to ensure that translations were adapted to meet the needs of other cultures and countries. I’m honoured to join the ranks of past recipients, such as Henriette Avram (1990), Robert D. Stueart (1994), Robert Wedgeworth (2000), Marianna Tax Choldin (2005), Winston Tabb (2007), Ismael Abdullahi (2018), and Debora Jacobs (2019), all of whom made major contributions to international librarianship.