Category: Awards

SAA Awards: Nominations Open

The Society of American Archivists is in search of excellence! Do you know of an individual or organization that has made an outstanding contribution to the archives profession? Or promoted greater public awareness of archives? Have you published a groundbreaking book, written an outstanding article, or developed an innovative finding aid? Click on the links below to learn more about the below awards and nominate a deserving colleague—or yourself! Please consult the specific award for submission requirements and nomination form. Note that you can apply or be nominated for multiple awards in a single cycle, but may only receive one. The deadline for nominations is February 28. 

Call for Submissions: MARAC Arline Custer Memorial Award

The Arline Custer Memorial Award Committee seeks submissions for its annual award recognizing the best books and articles written or compiled by individuals and institutions in the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference (MARAC) region – the District of Columbia, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia.

Works under consideration include, but are not limited to, monographs, popular narratives, reference works and exhibition catalogs using archival sources. Works must be relevant to the general public as well as the archival community and published between July 1, 2024 and June 30, 2025.

All submissions must be received by July 31, 2025.

Electronic submissions in PDF format of the entire work are encouraged. Submissions and a letter of nomination should be sent to Senior Committee Co-Chair Sarah E. Almond at sarah.almond@mail.wvu.edu. More information about the award may be found online at https://www.marac.info/arline-custer-memorial-award.

Contact Email

sarah.almond@mail.wvu.edu

URL

https://www.marac.info/arline-custer-memorial-award

Call for Nominations: 2025 Distinguished Service in Library History Award

Call for Nominations

“The Distinguished Service in Library History Award is presented annually by the ALA Library History Round Table (LHRT) and honors the career of a person who has a lifetime of scholarship and service in the field of library history. This non-monetary award is intended to be given to an individual who has a record of contributions; who demonstrates length, breadth, and depth of involvement in library history; and who has had a significant impact on the work of the ALA Library History Round Table or on the library history community at large.”

Deadline: April 30, 2025

To learn more: https://lhrt.news/2025/04/03/call-for-nominations-2025-distinguished-service-in-library-history-award/

Nominations now open for the 29th Mander Jones Awards – Publications

The Mander Jones Awards Committee is pleased to announce that the call for nominations for the 29th annual Mander Jones Awards – Publications is now open!

These awards recognise excellence in publications relating to archives and recordkeeping. They are named in honour of Phyllis Mander Jones, a founding member of the Archives Section of the Library Association of Australia (later the ASA) and co-editor of the first issue of Archives & Manuscripts. 

Works published in 2024 are eligible for nomination. 

Nominations close Friday 6 June 2025.

How do I nominate?

You can submit your nomination(s) (electronic and hard copy) via our online nomination form in our new applications portal. You will need to create an account to nominate. You can save your progress and return at a later date to complete your nomination. You can also access and view any completed submissions. 

A copy of any nominated hard copy publication must be sent to the Mander Jones Award Committee and postmarked prior to the nomination deadline. You can find full details on how to send hard copy nominations on our website and within the online nomination form. 

You can find full details about nominating for the 29th Mander Jones Award – Publications on our website. 

Questions?

If you have any queries about the Mander Jones Awards, please contact Louise Trott, the Mander Jones Award Secretary.

If you have any questions about the online nomination form or submitting your online nomination, please contact the ASA Office.

Call for Expressions of Interest for a new Judge – Mander Jones Awards

Do you love reading? Would you like to read and assess the latest archival publications?

Consider becoming a Mander Jones Awards judge! This is your chance to play a vital role in the ASA’s efforts to encourage, promote, and recognise excellence in archival publications.

Since 1996 the ASA has been awarding the Mander Jones Awards for publications in the field of archives and recordkeeping.

The Awards are judged by a team of three judges, which reports its recommendations to the ASA Council. The 2024 judges were Sarah Lethbridge, Christine Yeats, and Sarah Brown.

In 2025 Christine Yeats and Sarah Brown are continuing in this role, and Sarah Lethbridge has stepped down. The ASA Council is grateful to Sarah L for her service to the Awards and is now seeking a new Judge.

Eligible candidates must be an ASA Accredited Profession (ASAAP) and should have:

  • substantial experience as a practising Archivist
  • a relatively wide acquaintance with Australian recordkeeping and archival literature

Judges need to commit an estimated 15-20 hours per week from mid-March to the end of July each year (depending upon the timing of the ASA Conference), to read and assess the nominated works, prepare judges reports, liaise with other judges, and develop citations for winning nominations.

We particularly encourage archivists working in the small archive sector to apply.

Please address Expressions of Interest and any questions to the Mander Jones Awards
Secretary, Dr Louise Trott: by 12 March 2025. 

You can learn more about the Mander Jones Awards here.

Reminder: Nominate a Colleague (or Yourself!) for SAA’s Preservation Publication Award

The Preservation Publication Award Committee welcomes nominations of outstanding preservation-related works of relevance to the North American archives community that were published in 2024. 

Nominated works may include articles, reports, chapters, or monographs in an audiovisual, digital, or print format. Works may cover topics related to analog or digital preservation, and the award includes a cash prize of $750.

To learn more about this award and to apply, please visithttps://www2.archivists.org/governance/handbook/section12-preservation.

Browse SAA’s many opportunities for professional recognition and financial assistance. Then click on the award’s application form for a preview and/or to create a profile, and follow the directions to complete your submission. The deadline is February 28.

Call for Nominations: SAA Publishing Awards

C.F.W. Coker Award  (for finding aids, tools or projects that involve innovative development in archival description)

Waldo Gifford Leland Award  (for writing of superior excellence and usefulness in the field of archival history, theory, or practice)

Preservation Publication Award  (for outstanding published work related to archives preservation)

Fellows’ Ernst Posner Award  (for outstanding essay in most recent volume of The American Archivist)

Theodore Calvin Pease Award  (for superior writing achievement by a student of archival studies as nominated by his/her instructor)

Call for Nominations: Phyllis Dain Library History Dissertation Award

The Library History Round Table (LHRT) of the American Library Association (ALA) sponsors the biennial Phyllis Dain Library History Dissertation Award. The 2025 award cycle opens for submissions in January.  Applications are due by January 31, 2025.

The award, named in honor of a library historian widely known as a supportive advisor and mentor as well as a rigorous scholar and thinker, recognizes outstanding dissertations in English in the general area of library history. The author of the selected dissertation will receive a certificate and five hundred dollars.

Dissertations completed and accepted during the preceding two academic years are eligible. Dissertations completed in 2023 and 2024 will be considered for the 2025 award cycle.

Dissertations must be original research on a significant topic relating to the history of libraries during any period, in any region of the world. Entries are judged on clear definition of research questions and/or hypotheses, use of appropriate primary resources, depth of research, superior quality of writing, and significance of conclusions. The LHRT is particularly interested in dissertations that place the subject within its broader historical, social, cultural, and political context and that make interdisciplinary connections with print culture and/or information studies.

Submissions for the next award cycle will open in January 2025. Applicants will be asked to submit one electronic copy of the approved and signed dissertation and a signed letter of support from the doctoral advisor or dissertation committee chair at the degree-granting institution.

For more information, please visit: https://www.ala.org/lhrt/awards/phyllis-dain-library-history-dissertation-award

Call for Nominations: Book Prize, Research Society of American Periodicals

Deadline: December 20, 2024

Contact: Cynthia Patterson (cpatterson@usf.edu) or Jim Berkey (jhb5255@psu.edu)

The Research Society of American Periodicals invites submissions for its 2023-2024 Book Prize. The prize is awarded to the best scholarly monograph on the subject of periodicals of the Americas published between January 1, 2023 and December 31, 2024. We understand “the Americas” as a geopolitical region to encompass more than the fifty US states and we welcome submissions with local, regional, national, international, transnational, transatlantic, and/or hemispheric archives, methodologies, and orientations. We also consider serial publications that might not reflect the conventional form of periodicals like newspapers, scholarly journals, and magazines; therefore, books about publications like zines and comics as well as digital publications may be eligible for this prize. Please note that submissions from all fields and disciplines are welcome, though at this time we are only able to consider books written in English.

The prize winner will be awarded $1000. The prizewinner and two honorable mentions will also be provided with a one-year membership to the Research Society of American Periodicals, which includes a subscription to the society’s journal, American Periodicals. The winner and two honorable mentions will be invited to participate in an RSAP Book Prize Roundtable held at the 2025 American Literature Association conference. If the conference is held in person, all roundtable participants will be reimbursed for travel expenses related to the conference (up to $1000). In order to alleviate costs as much as possible and allow for an international panel of scholars to review submissions, we ask that all monographs be submitted in electronic form. 

To apply, please email Cynthia Patterson at cpatterson@usf.edu and Jim Berkey at jhb5255@psu.edu with the completed  registration form (attached below) as well as an electronic version of the monograph.

In order to be considered, all submissions must be received by December 20, 2024, 11:59 p.m., and award recipients will be notified by the end of January 2025.

For more about the Research Society for American Periodicals, visit https://www.periodicalresearch.org/ and follow on Twitter @RSAPeriodicals.

Contact Email

jhb5255@psu.edu

Call for Nominations: Arline Custer Memorial Award

Arline Custer Memorial Award, presented by the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference

DEADLINE:  July 31, 2024

The Arline Custer Memorial Award is presented by the MARAC Arline Custer Memorial Award Committee.  This award honors the memory of Arline Custer (1909-1975), MARAC member and editor of the National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections.

Eligibility

The Arline Custer Memorial Award recognizes the best books and articles written or compiled by individuals and institutions in the MARAC region – the District of Columbia, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia.

Works under consideration include, but are not limited to: monographs, popular narratives, reference works and exhibition catalogs using archival sources.

Individuals or institutions may submit up to two works published between July 1, 2023 and June 30, 2024.

Evaluation

Works must be relevant to the general public as well as the archival community. They also should be original and well researched using available sources. In addition, they should be clearly presented, well written and organized. Visual materials, if used, should be appropriate to the text.

Compiled works or works with multiple authors-such as edited volumes, co-authored works, or journals-will be reviewed in their entirety. Portions of a multiple-author work that do not meet award requirements may impact the submission’s final scoring.

Preference will be given to works by archivists.

Award

Up to three awards may be given, with a maximum value of $200.00 for books and $100.00 for articles. The 2024 award(s) may be announced at the fall 2024 MARAC business meeting or shared with MARAC members via another means.

Electronic Submission Instructions

Electronic submissions are preferred. Please send a PDF of the entirety of the work along with a PDF of a letter of nomination to the Senior Co-Chair of the Arline Custer Memorial Award Committee:

Elise DeAndrea

Archivist

SUNY Upstate Medical University

Email: deandree@upstate.edu

Physical Submission Instructions

Please send two physical copies of each submission with a letter of nomination to the Senior Co-Chair of the Arline Custer Memorial Award Committee. Please email the Sr. Co-Chair to request the mailing address.

Email: deandree@upstate.edu 

Entries must be received by July 31, 2024

For additional information about this award and a list of previous award winners, see the Arline Custer Memorial Award site: http://www.marac.info/arline-custer-memorial-award