Hal Mendelsohn Award

Hal Mendelsohn grew up in Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley. He attended Los Angeles City College and received a B.S. in Business Administration with an emphasis in Marketing and Advertising from California State University at Los Angeles. He left the Los Angeles area in 1978 and joined VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) for one year and worked in Minneapolis, MN.

After VISTA, he attended the University of St Thomas, in St. Paul, MN. He received a Master of Arts in Community Education. Hal returned to Los Angeles and eventually moved to San Jose where he worked in several nursing homes. After being laid off, he made the decision to return to college and wanted to major in a profession where he could work with individuals in a higher education setting. While looking through The Chronicle of Higher Education, he read the description for a reference librarian. He realized that was the type of work he wanted to do!

Hal attended the MLS program at San Jose State University from summer 1992 through summer 1994. His first full time professional position was a reference librarian at Louisiana State University at Eunice. He worked there from 1995-2001. His second professional librarian position was that the University of Central Florida, where he worked until his retirement on July 31, 2015.

Hal has published articles, participated in joint and individual presentations, and poster sessions. He is a tireless promoter of information, mentoring, and the library profession.

He has held membership in the Florida Library Association (FLA), the Southeastern Library Association (SELA), and the American Library Association (ALA). Within ALA he held memberships in both ACRL and RUSA. His leadership was greatly appreciated in SELA. He was a member, co-chair, and chair of the Membership and Mentoring Committee for 14 years. In recognition of his dedication to the Southeastern Library Association, in 2012, the SELA Executive Board established the Hal Mendelsohn Award, for which Hal was the first recipient. He was recognized by the University of Central Florida by receiving the UCF Excellence in Librarianship Award in 2014.