Paula T. Kaufman has been named the 2010 winner of the Hugh C. Atkinson Memorial Award.

The award is named in honor of one of the pioneers of library automation and recognizes an academic librarian who has made significant contributions in the area of library automation or management and has made notable improvements in library services or research.

Kaufman will receive a cash award and citation during the joint ACRL / Library Leadership and Management Association (LLAMA) Awards Program, at 8:30 a.m., Saturday, June 26, at the ALA Annual Conference in Washington D.C.

Kaufman has served as head of the Business and Economics Library and director of the Library Services group at Columbia University, was acting head of the East Asian Library in 1982 and acting vice-president for information technology and university librarian from 1987-88. She served as dean of libraries at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville from 1988-99.

In 2006, the provost of the U of I tapped Kaufman to serve as the university’s interim chief information officer. Kaufman increased communication among technology staff and reconnected the information technology department with the rest of the campus. She focused on the issues of how to support education in the evolving digital age and led the state in digitizing collections.

Kaufman received her AB in Economics from Smith College, MBA from the University of New Haven and MS in Library Service from the School of Library Service at Columbia University.

The Hugh C. Atkinson Award is sponsored by the American Library Association and is funded from an endowment established to honor Hugh C. Atkinson.