MIT Libraries and MIT Press Staff Honored with MIT Excellence Awards
Business and Management Librarian Shikha Sharma was the recipient of an MIT Excellence Award, presented at a ceremony at Kresge Auditorium on March 21. Sharma, who joined the MIT Libraries in 2015, is described by her colleagues as a “powerhouse.” Her work with faculty, researchers, and students at the Sloan School of Management includes coaching student teams, helping provide the innovative databases needed by Sloan researchers and entrepreneurs, contributing to faculty research, learning how to use APIs with international data resources, and much more.

The MIT Press is proud to announce that its own Diversity and Inclusion Working Group (DIWG) received the 2019 MIT Excellence Award for Advancing Inclusion and Global Perspectives at the Institute. Founded in 2017, the DIWG seeks to increase awareness about issues of diversity, establish a set of internal best practices toward a more inclusive workforce, and support colleagues in implementing a strategy to diversify Press voices, including in publications and participation in wider communities, social media, and events. Thanks to the work of the DIWG, the MIT Press has implemented several new initiatives, including wider recruiting for its internship program, an important pipeline for those seeking entry-level positions in publishing; transgender inclusivity training; and monthly welcome lunches for new employees. Through these efforts, the MIT Press hopes to serve as a model for the scholarly publishing industry.

The MIT Excellence Awards and Collier Medal acknowledge the extraordinary efforts made by members of our community toward fulfilling the goals, values, and mission of the Institute. They are among the highest honors awarded by MIT.

AKDC Receives the Mohamed Makiya Prize
The Aga Khan Documentation Center at the MIT Libraries was awarded the Mohamed Makiya Prize of the Tamayouz Excellence Awards, recognizing individuals or organizations who promoted, encouraged, campaigned, or influenced the advancement of architecture and the built environment in the Middle East. Michael Toler, interim program head and Archnet content manager, accepted the award on behalf of AKDC at a ceremony in Amman, Jordan, on December 8.

“It is a particularly meaningful honor to receive an award named for Dr. Mohamed Makiya, not only because he was a great architect and intellectual, but also because his archive was the first received by AKDC,” said Toler in his acceptance speech. “It established AKDC as a trustworthy custodian of valuable archives; a steward that would not be content simply to catalog, preserve, and lock away artifacts, but one with an explicit foundational vision to share those materials with the world.”