Emily Johnson Batista, a reference librarian at Penn’s Lippincott Library and head of circulation services at the Van Pelt-Dietrich Library, was recently honored with a Distinguished Alumni Award from Iowa State University’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. The award recognizes outstanding alumni from the department of world languages & cultures at Iowa State.

Ms. Batista, who earned a bachelor’s degree in German from Iowa State in 1975, was honored for her contributions as a librarian serving in public, special, government and academic libraries.

“We are thrilled to recognize Emily with a Distinguished Alumni Award from our Department of World Languages and Cultures,” Kim McDonough, director of alumni relations in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, said. “Her impressive contributions to her professional field are worthy of special recognition, and we could not be more proud to honor her as an outstanding College of Liberal Arts and Sciences alumna.”

Throughout her career, Ms. Batista has used automation to enhance library services. Her areas of expertise include circulation and access services, resource sharing services, library management systems and library staff management.

Ms. Batista is also an active leader in the American Library Association. Following her graduation from Iowa State, she earned a master’s degree in library science from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign.