WashU Librarian Receives 2026 Ronald G. Bohley Award

Associate University Librarian Amanda Albert received the Missouri Library Association (MLA) 2026 Ronald G. Bohley Award. Albert and Rachelle Brandel from Missouri Baptist University received the award for their leadership and work on the Missouri Librarian AI Resource (MLAIR) project.

The Bohley Award is presented jointly by MLA and C2C Solutions “to an individual or individuals whose actions have led libraries to work better together and who exemplify the best efforts to reach out beyond his or her own institution to further multi-type library cooperation throughout the State of Missouri.”

Albert explained how she was inspired to create MLAIR. “A couple of years ago I got interested in how libraries were talking about and teaching their patrons about AI. I launched a project to examine LibGuides content, first looking at St. Louis regional academic libraries, and then statewide. My findings indicated there was a real gap in AI-related content, and I hypothesized this happens for a few reasons–time, capacity, and training.” MLAIR was born in 2025 with the help of a Access and Innovation Grant through the MLA.

MLAIR is an open resource where librarians can learn and disseminate information about AI; the platform helps librarians address AI impacts in a variety of library categories, enables conference presentations, and ongoing updates to informational resources available to Missouri librarians.

“We’d also like to make the resource more sustainable and accessible to librarians and continue our work of statewide collaboration and support for librarians who need training or AI content, but don’t have much time to devote to it. We are hoping to have the capacity to support these goals in the future,” said Albert.