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The recipient of the 2008 Bernadine Abbott Hoduski Award is Lily Wai, Professor Emeritus and former Head of the Government Document Department at the University of Idaho Library. This award recognizes Lily's significant contributions to the field of state, local and federal documents.

For more than 20 years Lily has served the citizens of Idaho and has provided leadership to the documents community in the Pacific Northwest as Head of the Regional Depository Library for the state of Idaho. Lily's major contribution was the development of INSIDE Idaho; a digital geospatial and statistical data clearinghouse which was initially developed with funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (1999-2001) and several USGS CAP grants. The increasing demands for Idaho's geospatial information by educational institutions, government and business professionals, as well as Idaho citizens will be served in future generations through her visionary efforts.

Lily has been a long time advocate of citizen's rights to effect change and participate in the political process. One notable and innovative example occurred during the 2000 Census redistricting efforts in Idaho. Lily worked with the Idaho Redistricting Commission and libraries throughout the state to offer citizens opportunities to use GIS software to draw and submit suggestions for legislative and congressional district boundaries. Although Lily has retired from the library, she has continued to live out this conviction as an advocate by raising awareness for cancer research. The photo that has been included with this accolade typifies our friend and colleague and deserves some explanation. It was taken in Washington D.C. at the LiveStrong Day on May 16, 2007 where she participated as a representative from the state of Idaho lobbying for cancer research funding for NIH and NCI.

In recognition of her contributions to state and local documents librarianship and to the community of documents librarians in the Pacific Northwest, GODORT is proud to present this award to Lily Wai.