The Chicago Association of Law Libraries honors JoAnn Hounshell with the  2015 Agnes and Harvey Reid Award for Outstanding Contribution to Law Librarianship.

JoAnn Hounshell has been committed to serving law librarianship and law libraries for over 25 years.  She is well known to CALL, having served on the Board three times.  She has been elected both Treasurer (2004-06) and Director (1998-99).  Most recently, she served as Vice President/President/Past President (2011-14).

As Vice President, JoAnn scheduled excellent speakers for the business meetings including the fascinating Philip Costello, Cook County Circuit Court Archivist.  As President, JoAnn’s term was highly productive.  Among many other projects during her tenure, CALL published Finding Illinois Law: A Librarian’s Guide for Non-Lawyers, created the Committee on Committees to make CALL’s leadership work more efficiently, and oversaw a bylaws election.

JoAnn’s commitment to CALL goes well beyond her Board service.  She has also chaired several CALL Committees, including the Nominations and Elections Committee this year.  She has also served as chair of Grants and Chapter Awards, Relations with Vendors, and Meetings.  She has served on many other committees, most recently on Corporate Memory this year.  In addition to her leadership, JoAnn has written articles for the CALL Bulletin.

JoAnn has been extremely active in AALL.  Recently, she served as Chair of the Council of Chapter Presidents.  She is also a past Chair of the Technical Services Special Interest Section (TS-SIS) (and a past Member-at-Large).  She is even more active with AALL Committees.  JoAnn has chaired the Price Index for Legal Publications Committee.  She served on the Bylaws and Resolutions Committee, the Chapter Summit Planning Committee, the Library Procurements Process Improvements Task Force, the Consortium Review Task Force, the Relations with Vendors Committee, and the Recruitment Committee.  She is a current member of the Academic Law Libraries, Computing Services, and Technical Services special interest sections (ALL-SIS, CS-SIS, and TS-SIS).

JoAnn’s accomplishments are not limited to AALL and CALL.  She has also been active in other organizations.  Currently, JoAnn serves as the Vice Chair of LIPA (Legal Information Preservation Alliance).  She is also a past representative on the CARLI (Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois) I-Share Acquisitions & Serials Team.

For the last 12 years, JoAnn has been the backbone of the IIT Chicago-Kent Law Library.  She implemented new workflows to make the library more efficient, restructured library space, and launched a new catalog – all within her first year.  As Associate Director, she continues to ensure that every process in the library functions smoothly, manages a complex budget, and supervises professional staff.  She has been instrumental in many projects, such as the latest library website redesign and the launch of Chicago-Kent’s online repository.

JoAnn has provided unparalleled service and dedication to law librarianship.  She has worked diligently to improve every organization she has worked with, and has never failed to make a difference.