Greetings,
   An excellent suggestion.  I just looked at the ASIST awards, and I doubt 
if students of today know who James Cretsos was, or Watson Davis. But the 
students can aspire to awards named after these individuals. I personally 
am not sure who these people were or what their intellectual or 
administrative feats that they achieved.
   I also note that there are some corporate folks who have awards named 
after them - ProQuest, and Thomson-Reuters for example.  These also could 
be collectively reviewed.  The ProQuest statement does give a skimpy but 
reasonably clear objective. I'd list the items as 2, 3, 1, 5, 6, 4.  The 
Thompson-Routers statement is more detailed, and includes more mechanics. 
But both migh benefit from new reviews by named and un-named 
associations.  Neither really gives a strong statement of purpose or 
objective.
   And, perhaps these omissions and reviews will indicate gaps: Lester 
Asheim, for example.  How would you formulate an award, in what kind of 
school, for his work and contribution to the library profession? And for 
what?  And there is no SR Ranganathan award for something.  Yet he had a 
profound influence on LIS.
   Who do you as a community want to honor with an award?  And for what? 
What are the 10 most signficant contributions to the LIS community in the 
last 100-150 years?
   As the poster suggested, it is important to LIS history to communicate 
not only to the awardee, but to the larger community, the legacy that is 
being passed down and expected of the awardee.
   I hope that her suggestions are given serious consideration by the LIS 
community.
   An interesting conversation.  Please keep it going.
   --gw

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Gretchen Whitney, PhD, Retired
School of Information Sciences
University of Tennessee, Knoxville TN 37996 USA           [log in to unmask]
http://web.utk.edu/~gwhitney/
jESSE:http://web.utk.edu/~gwhitney/jesse.html
SIGMETRICS:http://web.utk.edu/~gwhitney/sigmetrics.html
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On Fri, 15 Nov 2013, Linda R Most wrote:

> In light of the current discussion of Dr. Wynar's legacy and also in 
>light of the other fairly recent losses of other pioneers in our field, 
>many of whom have had awards named after them to keep their names alive, 
>may I suggest that the boards of directors of ALISE, ALA, ASIST, and any 
>other professional organizations who give such awards provide a paragraph 
>of description about the person for whom the award was named on their 
>awards web pages or directories.  For a field that prides itself on the 
>organization, dissemination, and preservation of recorded knowledge in 
>all its forms, we are surprisingly lax about preserving our own history.
>
> Linda R. Most, Ph.D.
> Associate Professor & Assistant Program Director
> MLIS Program, Valdosta State University
> 1500 North Patterson Street, Odum 4600
> Valdosta GA 31698
> [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> 229-245-6534 (voice)
> 229-259-5055 (fax)
>
>