Toni Olshen, Business Librarian at the Peter F. Bronfman Business Library at York University’s Schulich School of Business and former Associate University Librarian at York University Libraries, has been awarded the inaugural OCULA Lifetime Achievement Award.

Toni has practiced as an information specialist and librarian for nearly 40 years in academic, special, public and government libraries. She worked at Glendon from 1969-73, returning to York University Libraries in 1989, serving as Associate University Librarian of Public Services until 2003, and subsequently moved to the Peter F. Bronfman Business Library at York’s Schulich School of Business where she practices to this day. She has made outstanding contributions to academic librarianship through high-caliber research, the creation and implementation of excellent library programs, as well as through her activities in the many organizations whose success she has tirelessly contributed to over the course of a multi-facetted and accomplished career.

Prior to her tenure at York, Toni was Assistant Manager of the Financial Post Library. As Manager of Client Services at the Financial Post she established FP Online, transforming the daily print newspaper to a fully online edition. She was also Editorial Manager at Micromedia Ltd., responsible for the print and electronic versions of the Canadian reference books: Microlog, Canadian Business Index and Canadian News Index.

At York, Toni has been a passionate pioneer in the areas of diversity and library service quality and assessment. Add to these her dedication to teaching and mentoring students and new librarians, and her deep social justice values in promoting equal access to resources and education, and the result is a career that has influenced in very positive and lasting ways, the course of academic librarianship in Canada.

Thanks to Toni’s efforts, York University has a leading Library Accessibility Services department with an adaptive equipment lab that serves as a model to other institutions as they conform to the requirements of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA).

Due to her interest in library service quality assessment, Toni initiated York’s involvement as the only Canadian library participating in the original pilot project of the Association of research Libraries (ARL) LibQUAL survey.  LibQUAL has evolved into a major international survey project for libraries all over the world with hundreds of participants in multiple languages. As Chair of the Scholars Portal Evaluation Task Group, Toni identified the ARL MINES (Measuring the Impact of Networked Electronic Services) survey as a protocol to use for the Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL) survey of the use and uses of Scholars Portal journals.

Toni has shared her expertise and experiences through lectures and presentations on topics such as: diversity in libraries, usability testing for library websites, and measuring and improving library service quality. Last year, Toni taught a course to librarians from 16 countries in the EU at the University of Parma (Italy) in the International Masters in Digital Libraries on evaluating digital libraries.

Toni Olshen is an exceptionally gifted librarian, administrator, educator, and mentor. Her career is an inspiration to the academic library community in Canada, the United States and abroad. It exemplifies the values that provide the context for this award, making her truly, as the criteria for the award state, “a librarian who has served as a role model or mentor for the profession.”