Hutchens Named Agnes Milstead Distinguished Librarian at UW

Chad Hutchens, an associate librarian and head of Digital Collections at the University of Wyoming Libraries, is the recipient of UW’s 2020 Agnes Milstead Distinguished Librarianship Award.

The late Agnes Milstead, a former professor of education and library science at UW, established the annual award in 1993 to recognize significant contributions to UW Libraries in scholarship, program development, teaching, fundraising and professional achievements.

The award recognizes Hutchens for his leadership, collaboration, innovation and commitment to service to UW Libraries’ mission. He oversees the implementation and sharing of digital collections along with the management of multiple repositories.

A librarian at UW since 2008, Hutchens has achieved several professional accomplishments, including adapting existing practices to incorporate innovative and unique ways of thinking; developing open source materials; improving metadata practices; and expanding the roles within Digital Collections to build a robust department. 

In 2019, he was one of eight fellows selected among UW faculty members to receive a fellowship with the Wyoming Institute for Humanities Research.  

Laura Vietti, museum and collections manager for the UW Department of Geology and Geophysics, wrote in her nomination letter that Hutchens “leads an outstanding team of professionals in the digitizing field that are highly qualified and capable to tackle any upstream or downstream digitization task.” 

Hutchens’ ability to build campus and statewide partnerships has allowed him to use new digital technologies in the preservation of digital materials.

Marieka Arksey, former collections manager for the UW Archaeological Repository, wrote in her nomination letter about her collaboration with Hutchens.

“I honestly do not know how I would manage our digital collections if it weren’t for his support,” Arksey wrote.

A fellow colleague stated in his nomination letter that Hutchens “… is creating opportunities for faculty and staff to grow with the shifting landscape. His outreach efforts to partners on campus and around the state shine a light on the department’s ability to provide a wide range of digital support to interested partners.” 

Another colleague noted in her nomination letter, “Chad encourages innovation and tenacity when dealing with complex processes of capture and creation of digital objects. From the day-to-day scanning work done by students to specialized on-site photogrammetry, which he supported himself, there is no task too small or large.” 

Hutchens earned a master’s degree in library and information science (2004) at the University of Texas-Austin. He received a master’s degree (2001) and a bachelor’s degree (1999), both in classics from the University of Colorado-Boulder.