The Reference and User Services Association announced a call for nominations!
“RUSA encourages members to nominate their colleagues whose work has influenced their thinking and performance and whose outstanding contributions merit recognition by the profession. RUSA has, and will continue to, nominate, select and honor the very best in the field of reference and user services with the continued support of industry sponsors.”
Are you doing some great work in Reference? Do you have a colleague, in your library or in another one, who is doing great work? Nominate yourself or someone else! (Self nominations are fine here; you may know better than anyone else around you how well you are doing in Reference work, and it’s great to nominate yourself.)
There are CMLE librarians doing some great work; if you want to work on one of these nominations, they can make a big difference in the professional life of a winner. Contact Mary at CMLE headquarters to talk about the form, and for help in writing and editing your nomination.
There are a wide variety of awards available, reflecting the breadth of Reference work in today’s libraries. Here are just a few examples of the full list:
- BRASS Mergent Excellence in Business Librarianship Award is presented to an individual who has made a significant contribution to business librarianship. $4,000* and a citation.
- ETS Achievement Recognition Award is a citation presented annually in recognition of excellence in service to the Emerging Technologies Section of RUSA. The winner receives a citation.
- Isadore Gilbert Mudge Award, RUSA’s highest honor, recognizes an individual who has made a distinguished contribution to the field of reference librarianship. $5,000* and a citation.
- Virginia Boucher/OCLC Distinguished ILL Librarian Award is given to an individual for his or her outstanding professional achievement, leadership, and contributions to interlibrary loan and document delivery. $2,000* and a citation.
- Gale Cengage Learning History Research and Innovation Award is granted to an MLS degreed librarian from an ALA accredited school to facilitate and further research relating to history and history librarianship. $2,500* and a citation.
Questions about these awards should be directed to Leighann Wood, Sr. Program Officer, lwood@ala.org. More information about these awards, including nominating instructions, can be found on RUSA’s awards webpage.
The Laura Bush Foundation for America’s Libraries is again offering a grant opportunity for school libraries. The grant is for up to $7000 and all grant dollars are to be spent for books, e-books or magazines/serials in print, Braille or audio form. There are also eligibility requirements to consider, one being that “at least 85% of the school’s student population must qualify for Free/Reduced Lunch (FRL).” Make sure you review all the requirements before you apply! The deadline is December 14th 2015. Last year 131 grants were awarded out of the 538 applications. That’s a 25% success rate!