Marie Concannon, head of government information and data archive at the MU Libraries, is the recipient of the 2024 James Bennett Childs Award. This honor, which is awarded by the Government Documents Round Table of the American Library Association, is a tribute to an individual who has made a lifetime and significant contribution to the field of documents librarianship.

From the award letter: “The Awards Committee noted that the support letters for your nomination focused on your dedication to the profession and your lifetime of service. Your role in Government Documents practice has been exemplary. Your work with Prices and Wages by Decade has been beneficial not only to the government information community, but to the wider community as well. It is a privilege to honor you with this award for your years of dedication and service to Government Information.”

Assisted by the MU Libraries, humanities researcher Carsten Strathausen is constructing a comprehensive visual database encompassing all adaptations of Franz Kafka’s “The Trial.” This resource aims to serve scholars and students for years to come.

Research Librarian Anne Barker consulted with Carsten on the project by identifying and acquiring materials, suggesting strategies for gathering data, and pointing him to other library staff who could assist. Seth Huber, head of cataloging acquisitions and collection development,
searched for and downloaded the catalog records of versions and translations of “The Trial.”
In addition, Steven Pryor, director of digital initiatives, developed a Python web-crawler to gather metadata on these resources and played a key role in organizing the dataset. He also helped to created an Excel sheet containing vital information to track advancements, which will be useful to continue these research endeavors.

The Interlibrary Loan team played a crucial role in acquiring numerous adaptations of “The Trial” from around the globe, including artworks, films, graphic novels and more. Ivy Hui, head of the ILL Borrowing/Requesting Unit, and her dedicated team maintained regular communication with Dr. Strathausen, updating him on their progress in locating these elusive adaptations of Kafka’s text.

Dr. Stathausen is continuing his work with a grant from the MU Center for the Humanities and is organizing an international symposium on “Digital Kafka” that will take place this fall at Georgetown University.

For more information on this project and an interview with Dr. Strathausen, visit Research, Innovation and Impact.