Asma Al-Kanan receives AMICAL award for outstanding volunteer service

Jeff Gima (AMICAL Director) and Maha Bali (AMICAL Coordinating Committee Chair) present the award to Asma Al-Kanan (connecting remotely) at AMICAL 2023.

AMICAL is a 30-institution consortium with a paid staff of about 2 FTEs. Like any good membership based organization, we rely on members to contribute and often lead in the organization of our consortial programs, initiatives and events.

In spite of the broadly shared good will and volunteer efforts that all colleagues who participate actively in AMICAL make at various moments, it’s important to recognize when a member has offered their time and efforts in exceptional ways, and consistently over many years, for the benefit of other consortium members broadly.

AMICAL’s Coordinating Committee officers therefore agreed that this year’s Award for Outstanding Volunteer Service by an AMICAL Colleague should go to Asma Al-Kanan, University Librarian at the American University of Kuwait. In selecting Asma for this award, the officers cited the exceptional and sustained volunteer efforts she has made in support of consortial goals, in particular her:

• Steady, thoughtful stewardship of AMICAL’s Leadership & Assessment Committee since 2018, organizing regular events and initiatives with other library leaders across the consortium
• Continuous work since 2018 on developing and implementing AMICAL’s Library Benchmarking Survey, based on the ACRL Academic Library Trends and Statistics Survey but customized for AMICAL members
• Generous, effective and exceptionally patient collaboration and leadership in hosting and co-organizing the AMICAL 2020 Conference at the American University of Kuwait

Asma was unable to attend the AMICAL 2023 Conference in person, so we had to present the award to her virtually (see the photo leading this blog post). She shared with us these comments in reaction to the award, however:

“I’m greatly pleased to be selected for this award! It is truly an honor. AMICAL has offered opportunities and support to libraries and educational projects throughout the years such as professional development, annual conferences, access to resources, collaborative projects and a network of professional community. I’m grateful for all that and it keeps me encouraged to give back to this wonderful community. Being part of AMICAL has been so rewarding, as well as voluntary work and service.”

Asma’s work with our Leadership & Assessment Committee, with its consortial initiatives supporting library directors across the consortium, continues actively. We deeply appreciate the work she has done, and continues to do, in helping colleagues to enrich and make use of the shared resource our consortium represents.

On behalf of AMICAL’s Coordinating Committee Officers
Maha Bali, Chair (Associate Professor of Practice, American University in Cairo)
Ola El Zein (Head of Medical Library, American University of Beirut)
Ekaterina Kombarova (Deputy Director, Center for Teaching, Learning and Technology, American University of Central Asia)
Clélie Riat (Director of Library Services, Franklin University Switzerland)
Jeff Gima (AMICAL Consortium Director, American University of Paris)

Previous recipients of the Award for Outstanding Volunteer Service by an AMICAL Colleague have included:
• Maha Bali (American University in Cairo)
• Elisabetta Morani (John Cabot University)