The Library History Round Table Announces 2010 Award Recipients

For Immediate Release
Sun, 06/27/2010 - 23:00

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Norman Rose
Program Officer
Office for Research and Statistics (ORS)
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Washington, D.C. - The Library History Round Table (LHRT) of the American Library Association (ALA) has named the 2010 winners of the Justin Winsor Prize Essay Award, the Donald G. Davis Article Award and the Eliza Atkins Gleason Book Award honoring the best writers on the topic of library history.
 
The 2010 recipient of the Justin Winsor Prize Award is Pamela R. Bleisch, an independent scholar from San Luis Obispo, Calif., for her work “Spoilsmen and Daughters of the Republic: Political Interference in the Texas State Library during the Tenure of Elizabeth Howard West, 1911 - 1925.” The award, $500 and a certificate, is presented annually to the author of an outstanding essay embodying original historical research on a significant subject of library history.  The author is also invited to submit the essay for publication in Libraries & the Cultural Record, a journal of library history published by University of Texas Press. 
 
Kate McDowell is the 2010 winner of the Donald G. Davis Article Award. This award is given every second year to recognize the best article written in English in the field of United States and Canadian library history, including the history of libraries, librarianship and book culture in the previous two calendar years. McDowell, assistant professor at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, won the award for her article “Surveying the Field: The Research Model of Women in Librarianship,” published in The Library Quarterly v. 79, no. 3 (2009): 279-300. In this study of a survey-based research model developed and employed by women librarians in the late 19th century, McDowell demonstrates that they changed the professional discourse of American librarianship.
The 2010 Eliza Atkins Gleason Book Award is presented to David Allan, Professor of History at the University of St. Andrews, for “A Nation of Readers: The Lending Library in Georgian England” (London: British Library, 2008). Presented every third year, the Gleason Award recognizes the best book written in English in the field of library history. First given in 2004, this award honors the professional contributions of Dr. Eliza Atkins Gleason, the first African American to receive a Ph.D. in Library Science (University of Chicago, 1940). As many in the profession are aware, Dr. Gleason passed away on Dec. 15, her 100th birthday, after a long and fruitful career in librarianship, making this year’s award especially poignant.
 
The Library History Round Table facilitates communication among scholars and students of library history, supports research in library history and is active in issues that concern library historians such as preservation. The Round Table sponsors conferences, publishes a newsletter and presents the Justin Winsor Prize, The Donald G. Davis Article Award, the Phyllis Dain Dissertation Award and the Eliza Atkins Gleason Book Award to promote excellence in library history research. In 1999, LHRT marked its 50th year of library history scholarship and activism.
 
For more information on the Library History Round Table please visit http://www.ala.org/lhrt.