LISAA Spring Awards to Honor UCLA Alumna Victoria Steele

The UCLA Library & Information Studies Alumni Association and the UCLA Department of Information Studies will celebrate the 2021 LISAA Spring Awards in a virtual event on Thursday, June 3, 2021 at 5:30 p.m., PST.

The 2021 Distinguished Alumni Award will be presented to Victoria Steele (’81, MLIS), curator of the UCLA Public Art Collection. Günter Waibel, associate vice provost and executive director of the UC’s California Digital Library, will deliver the keynote address. This event will also honor the UCLA Information Studies Class of 2020 and the graduating Class of 2021.

Steele is currently the curator of UCLA’s Public Art Collection, and served as the founding director of UCLA’s Center for Primary Research and Training. During her career, she has headed every Special Collections library at UCLA, including the Clark Library, Library Special Collections in the Charles E. Young Research Library, Special Collections in the Sciences, and the Elmer Belt Library of Vinciana.

From 1988 to 2000, Steele headed special collections at the University of Southern California and from 2009 to 2014, she was the Brooke Russell Astor Director of Collections at the New York Public Library. Steele is a Fellow of the Los Angeles Institute for the Humanities at the Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences at USC. She is also a former Fulbright Fellow and a double Bruin, with her bachelor’s degree in art history. She also earned her Ph.D. in art history and a masters degree at USC.  

Waibel took the helm as associate vice provost and executive director of the California Digital Library in 2016, and brings a collaborative and impact-oriented perspective to his leadership role. In his work, he is well-known for promoting cross-domain collaboration, with extensive experience in the digital library and broader cultural heritage communities. 

In his previous position as the director of the Digitization Program Office at the Smithsonian Institution, Waibel oversaw the strategic plan for creating a digital Smithsonian out of the institution’s 19 museums and nine research centers. He was a finalist for the 2014 Samuel J Heyman Service to America Medal, and his office has won three Smithsonian Secretary’s Awards in the last three years: for digital innovation, for collaborative spirit and for scientific research. 

In 2014, Waibel led the team which created the first 3D printed portrait of a sitting head-of-state through a sophisticated 3D capture of President Barack Obama. Prior to coming to the Smithsonian, Waibel promoted network-based solutions on behalf of an international collaborative of 140 research libraries as Program Officer for the Research Libraries Group and the OCLC Research Library Partnership. Waibel earned his masters degree in English Literature from Georgetown University and taught in the digital library certificate program for Syracuse University’s iSchool from 2003 to 2008.

To attend this event, register at this Zoom link.