Jim
Tchobanoff, a longtime leader and innovator in the information profession, is
the 2010 recipient of the SLA John Cotton Dana Award.
The
prestigious award, named for the founder of SLA,
recognizes a lifetime of achievement as well as exceptional service to special
librarianship and the information profession. The SLA Awards Committee cited
Tchobanoff’s leadership in the profession and volunteer work at all levels of
the association during more than 30 years of membership.
“Jim’s colleagues
from across the association came out in droves to support his nomination, and I
applaud the committee’s choice to honor him with this much-deserved award,”
said 2010 SLA President Anne Caputo.
Tchobanoff’s
roles in SLA have included serving as president of the Minnesota Chapter (1979-1980), chair of the Food,
Agriculture and Nutrition Division (1982-1983), and two terms on the Board of
Directors (division cabinet chair 1983-1985 and director 1987-1990). He also chaired
the Long Range Planning Committee (1984-1985), the Special Committee on
Research (1985-1986), the Bylaws Committee (1994-1996) and the Committee on
Committees (1996-2000).
Tchobanoff
received SLA’s President’s Award in 1986 for
his work on the Long Range Plan and again in 1988 for his contributions to the
President’s Task Force on the Value of the Information Professional. He was named a Fellow of SLA in 1991.
Former SLA
President Stephen Abram commented on
Tchobanoff’s work rewriting SLA’s governing
documents. “Bylaws could make a grown man cry,” said Abram,
“and Jim helped make them simpler. That kind of insight has been very important
to SLA moving forward.”
Tchobanoff’s accomplishments include
developing SLA’s first long-range strategic plan, creating the scope and
research agenda for the association, and leading the membership effort that
resulted in the expansion of SLA’s
professional development program. The testimonials and letters submitted in
support of his nomination make clear, however, that Tchobanoff’s most important
contributions to SLA may have been as a
diplomat, advisor, and mentor.
“I see in Jim’s interactions, and in
the stories he tells, the value in the relationships that he has formed and
maintained with SLA members around the world, across committees and companies,
divisions and departments,” wrote Deb Rash, 2010 president of the Minnesota
Chapter. “I have been immensely impressed with the level of dedication and
mentorship that Jim has shown to our chapter, and I know that his level of
participation and enthusiasm has spanned his whole career.”
In addition
to serving the association, Tchobanoff has repeatedly demonstrated his ability
to innovate during his career. While
working at the Pillsbury Company for 24
years, he led various teams that built a document warehouse system, giving
researchers access to more than 100,000 internal research documents. He also
created an R&D directory of employee expertise to harness Pillsbury’s
internal knowledge, and he planned, designed and implemented an electronic
project notebook system to help researchers access and share information.
While working in the 1970s at the University of Missouri-Kansas
City Medical Library as a senior clinical medical librarian, Tchobanoff, along
with Carolyn Anne Reid, Russ Murphy and Gertrude Lamb, Ph.D., implemented the
Clinical Medical Librarian Program. The librarians in this program make patient
rounds as members of a teaching and patient care team, providing information
services to team members. The program was ground-breaking and successfully
introduced the concept of embedded medical librarianship to the profession.
Tchobanoff graduated with a bachelor of science degree in
chemistry (1968) and master of arts in library science (1971) from the University of Michigan. He currently runs an
independent library and information management consulting business in Arden Hills, Minn.
Tchobanoff was
presented with his award on June 13 during the opening general session of the SLA
Annual Conference & INFO-EXPO in New
Orleans. To view a video about Tchobanoff and his
achievements, visit the awards channel on SLA-TV.