The University of Nebraska–Lincoln Libraries was awarded the inaugural 2026 Clarivate Library Innovation Award for the Libraries' work to scale and automate the identification, acquisition and delivery of no-cost or low-cost course materials to help make Husker students’ college experience more affordable.
The award was announced at the national meeting of the Ex Libris Users of North America in April, where representatives from the three finalists for the award — Nebraska, SUNY-Stony Brook and the University of Texas-Austin — were present.
On hand from Nebraska were two members of the Libraries faculty who led the winning project team — Melissa Gomis, professor of practice and chair of collections strategy and open scholarship, and Andrew Pederson, assistant professor and systems librarian. Both were surprised and delighted with the national recognition.
“I haven’t won an award since I was 14 and got most improved at tennis camp,” Pederson said. “I’m honored to have been a part of this project and to receive this award early in my career at Nebraska.”
To Gomis, this was a milestone moment after many years of working on the Libraries Course Materials Program, which has saved Husker students $3.4 million since 2022.
Liz Lorang, dean of Libraries, supported the effort to create a technical proof of concept of a scalable workflow model, and sponsored the UNL Libraries' winning project, nicknamed Project Fox.
“This workflow was an expansion of our library’s already successful program, and the workflow made use of many features of key programs in our library management system: Alma (the backbone of the Libraries’ collection management software), Leganto (a tool for delivering course materials to students digitally) and Rialto (a tool for identifying content for purchase),” Pederson said.
The team developed the workflow during 2024 and tested it during the 2025 school year through a pilot run by Gomis, which Nebraska Today reported on in October.
In their application for the innovation award, Pederson and Gomis described several innovative features of Project Fox, including a “paradigm shift where the Libraries serve as a strategic engine for lowering costs of course materials campuswide.”
“In this model, the Libraries' role in the process would come prior, or simultaneously with, the bookstore,” Pederson said.
“Students would know which materials they could get for free before purchasing anything, resulting in financial savings and access to course materials prior to the first day of the semester,” Gomis said.
The winning project stood out to the panel of independent judges for its “innovation, vision and demonstrated impact — a true reflection of leadership in today’s evolving library landscape.”
Clarivate | Innovative, who sponsored the award and the annual conference, is the leader in library management solutions, serving 10,000-plus public, academic, national and consortium libraries worldwide. The University of Nebraska–Lincoln Libraries and University of Nebraska system use Clarivate products to manage library resources.
Now that the model is complete and the initial pilot was a success, Gomis says that the piece still missing is the data at scale. The team has plans for more outreach and collaborations to get that data, but it will take time. Lorang shared that the speediest path to measurable success at scale is for every instructor at the university to share an accurate citation for every item on their syllabus with the University Libraries, either directly or through department-coordinated efforts.
“Since accurate citations are a standard best practice in academic work, we are confident that all UNL instructors can meaningfully contribute to this effort, with only small process changes,” Lorang said. “We look forward to working with all instructors and administrative partners to expand this real and lasting impact for every student."
“Even though there is more work to do going forward, receiving this award was still a really nice cap on how far we’ve come,” Gomis said.
