Sarah Dupont Winner of 2019 Outstanding Contribution Award

RICHMOND March, 2020 —The Council of Prairie and Pacific University Libraries (COPPUL) is pleased to recognize Sarah Dupont of the University of British Columbia with its 2019 Outstanding Contribution Award. This award, which may be given annually to an individual or team working in a member library, recognizes exemplary contributions to the consortium. These contributions should enhance service in multiple COPPUL libraries and have an impact throughout the region.

Ms. Dupont has been Head of Xwi7xwa Library at UBC since 2019 prior to which she was the Aboriginal Engagement Librarian at Xwi7xwa Library. Ms. Dupont has also been the Chair of the COPPUL Indigenous Knowledge Standing Committee (IKSC) since the fall of 2017. Her contributions to this committee have been numerous and impactful. Through her thoughtful and strategic leadership, the committee played a significant role in several successful Indigenous knowledge-related events for COPPUL members and the library/archives community more broadly and helped to shape the Indigenous knowledge-related objectives in the current COPPUL Strategic Directions. Sarah contributed to every aspect of the February 2020 COPPUL member meeting in which the IKSC joined with the Collections Committee for a morning of collaboration to surface issues and strategies around 3 collections/Indigenous knowledge-related topics. This event was the first of its kind for COPPUL and was very well received by participants. Through Sarah’s astute guidance, the discussions were robust and fruitful, resulting in useful summaries and ideas for future work. During the afternoon of the same day, Sarah led discussion on possible future activities for the IKSC in collaboration with Corey Davis (then COPPUL Digital Stewardship Network Coordinator), furthering COPPUL’s efforts to strengthen connections between the pillars of the COPPUL Strategic Directions.

Sarah also played a significant role in the Sorting Out Libraries meeting which took place in March 2019. Sorting Libraries Out sought to further the discussions around decolonizing classification and Indigenizing description that occurred at the February 2018 Making Meaning Symposium at the University of Alberta. Hosted by colleagues at Simon Fraser University (SFU), Sorting Libraries Out was the direct result of a presentation from one of the Making Meaning organizers at the March 2018 COPPUL meeting. As one of two COPPUL representatives on the planning team, Sarah was involved in virtually every aspect of Sorting Libraries Out, including development of the program, the successful SSHRC Connection Grant application, identification of and liaison with speakers, recruitment and supervision of a co-op student, as well as numerous tasks and last-minute solutions during the event. Sarah also coordinated and led a day of cultural programming at Musqueam and UBC that was cited by many participants as a highlight of the meeting.

Sarah’s contributions have clearly had an impact in the region. Along with her contributions at the COPPUL member meetings and the Making Meaning Symposium, Sarah also contributed a well-received presentation at the @Risk North 2: Digital Collections event in Ottawa in November 2018, sponsored by CARL, CRKN and LAC.  As a result of her excellent presentation, SFU modified the criteria for their Scholarly Digitization Grants program.