After 34 years of service to LYRASIS (formerly SOLINET), Sandy Nyberg retires this month (June 2021). In celebration of her impact on the cultural heritage sector, LYRASIS announces the establishment of a new Sandy Nyberg Award as part of the Catalyst Fund. The award will recognize proposals that demonstrate the highest levels of innovation in the areas of preservation, conservation, collections, writing and publishing. 

Sandy has an MSLS from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a BA in history from Lawrence University in Wisconsin. In her career, Sandy held professional positions in preservation and conservation at organizations such as Stanford University and SOLINET (the Southeastern Library Network). Since 1995, Sandy has been the Grants Officer at LYRASIS, responsible for strategy, oversight, and administration of more than 60 million in grant dollars. She’s worked with funders such as the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. 

Sandy’s impact on libraries, archives and museums has spanned research, development, and programs in digital library services, collections management and preservation, library education and leadership development, open-source technologies, emergency preparedness and response, and other collaborative projects to improve the field. 

In 2016, Sandy had a central role in the development of the LYRASIS Catalyst Fund – a program that awards funds to LYRASIS member institutions to test ideas with the potential to solve problems at scale. Since then, the Catalyst Fund has awarded more than $600,000 to 30 distinct projects. It supports values of cross institutional collaboration; diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility; and open source, open access, and open infrastructure. LYRASIS will designate the new Sandy Nyberg Award due to Sandy’s pivotal role in the Catalyst Fund and her dedication to grants throughout her career. 

This year, LYRASIS will award the inaugural Sandy Nyberg Award to Duke University Libraries for their Catalyst Fund project proposal to digitize and provide open access to legacy conservation treatment records. The project will serve as a model for other conservation labs to follow in their transition to digital documentation and linked data and allow researchers to learn about the history and materiality of library and archives materials, analyze treatment methods, and track the history of conservation techniques. 

Sandy’s colleagues and peers at LYRASIS and beyond will miss her collaborative spirit, creative problem solving, and her advice. We congratulate Sandy on the incredible accomplishments, legacy of her career and on her retirement.