UQ Library wins prestigious national award

The University of Queensland's Library has won a $50,000 national award for its computing help and training service, AskIT.

The Federal Minister for Education, Training and Youth Affairs, Dr David Kemp presented the 2000 Australian Award for University Teaching in the Institutional category to the AskIt team at a ceremony at Parliament House, Canberra, today.

AskIT co-shares its award in this category with RMIT's services to D/deaf students.

AskIT (http://askit.uq.edu.au/) provides free information technology training and help for all UQ students and, together with the Library's Information Skills Program, delivers IT skills central to effective learning in print, in person and on the web.

This is the second time the UQ Library has won an Australian Award for University Teaching. In 1998, the Library's online service, Cybrary, won the institutional category.

University of Queensland Vice-Chancellor Professor John Hay said these two prestigious awards demonstrated the UQ Library was the best university library in Australia.

"The University of Queensland is indeed fortunate to have such a talented and dedicated library team committed to excellence and innovation," Professor Hay said.

The AskIT team includes University Librarian Janine Schmidt, Library Technology Service Manager Michael Manning, Library Staff IT coordinator Denise Frost, AskIT supervisor/trainer Wendy Fitzmaurice, AskIT trainer Alex Rohan, International and Special Projects coordinator Liz Jordan, and AskIT project officers Bonney Skinner and Matthew Boulter.

In other awards, UQ Professor Ron Weber won the Economics, Business and Related Studies category as well as taking out the highest honour, the Prime Minister's Australian Award for University Teacher of the Year.

The University of Queensland's first year biology team was also one of three finalists in the Biological Sciences, Health and Related Studies category.

The Australian Awards for University Teaching (AAUT) were established by the Commonwealth Government in 1997 to celebrate and reward excellence in university teaching.

For more inofrmation contact Peter McCutcheon at UQ Communications on 0413 380 012.