Dr. Sylvia Vardell Receives the 2017 Alida Cutts Lifetime Membership Award

USBBY is delighted to announce that the 2017 recipient of the Alida Cutts Lifetime Membership Award is Dr. Sylvia Vardell, professor in the School of Library and Information Studies at Texas Women's University in Denton, Texas. The award is presented to an individual who has given extraordinary service to USBBY over many years. Dr. Vardell has certainly met this criterion. She edited the USBBY Newsletter from Fall of 1999 to Spring of 2005; she served as President Elect of USBBY in 2005, President in 2006 during which the Outstanding International Books list was started and Past President in 2007; she served regularly on committees, among which were the Andersen Award Committee in 2009, the Briley Lecture Committee in 2010 and 2012, the Cutts Award Committee in 2012, and the Outstanding Books for Young People with Disabilities in 2015-16. In addition, she has been a regular presenter at USBBY regional conferences and at IBBY Congresses. She co-edited Bookbird from 2009 to 2011. Dr. Vardell has demonstrated a continuing commitment to USBBY. We are proud to have her as a representative of our organization and we thank her for her many valued contributions to it.