AUSTIN, Texas (September 1, 1999) –Two professional librarians at the University of Texas at Austin, William J. Kopplin and Jo Anne Newyear-Ramirez, have won 1999 Librarian Excellence Awards from the University's General Libraries. The awards carry a $1,000 stipend.

"Truly outstanding contributions by these librarians to the General libraries and to The University of Texas at Austin have earned this recognition," according to Harold Billings, Director of General Libraries. "We are grateful to each of these wonderful professionals, who in their daily efforts consistently exhibit the best qualities of modern librarianship."

Kopplin serves as head librarian of the Perry-Castañeda Library Periodicals and Microforms Unit and is assistant for operations in the Reference and Information Services Department. He has been cited as an excellent manager, an effective reference librarian and an outstanding bibliographer who has made a major impact on successful collection building in the General Libraries in recent years.

He has earned special recognition from the Professional Personnel Committee, and his representation of student and faculty needs has been described as "thought-provoking, balanced and extremely helpful." His leadership in the development of library instructional programs "has been a major reason for our great success in that area," according to Billings.

Kopplin's initial appointment was as a library clerk in 1979. He progressed through additional classified positions in several library units until his appointment as Assistant Science Librarian in 1987. He holds the M.L.I.S. degree and an M.A. in anthropology from UT Austin. His B.A. in anthropology was earned at Texas Tech University.

Newyear-Ramirez is assistant head, Collections and Information Resources Division, and served earlier in the Chemistry, Life Science, and Undergraduate libraries. Her colleagues have commented on her remarkable energy and helpfulness in her management assignment, as a bibliographer, as a teacher in the library instructional programs, and as a reference librarian.

She has also been commended for her production of the CIRD Newsletter, which carries collection building, budgetary and acquisitions information regularly to library staff, her role in LIBRARY NEWS, an e-mail publication sent to campus faculty, and for the online CIRD Web site which has received national recognition for its superior content and quality.

Recipient also of a special Director's Staff Honors Award, and recipient of several letters of recognition from the Professional Personnel Committee, Newyear-Ramirez holds a B.A. in history, a B.S. in zoology, and an M.L.I.S. degree, all from UT Austin.