Awards Committee
Chair: Past President
Terms of Reference:
- To solicit nominations and select recipients for awards, following procedures outlined in the Awards Manual, which contains a description of each award and procedures for bestowing.
Reporting Structure & Membership:
- The Awards Committee will be chaired by, and report to the Executive Board through, the Past President.
Duties & Responsibilities:
- Following the guidelines set in the Awards Manual, the Awards Committee will consult annually to decide if there is a suitable recipient for each of the awards.
- The committee chair will solicit the membership for award nominations via the ACMLA listserv and/or Bulletin.
- The committee will present its selection(s) to the Executive Board prior to the Annual Membership Meeting.
- As per ACMLA Rules of Procedure November 2014.
Guidelines for the ACMLA Honours Award
- The Honours Award shall consist of a framed certificate issued by ACMLA.
- This award is to be made during the annual conference.
- The award will not necessarily be issued every year.
- A call for nominations shall be made in two issues of the ACMLA Bulletin during the year.
- Nominations may be made by any individual member, including members of the Awards Committee itself.
- The recipient shall be an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the field of map librarianship or curatorship or archiveship.
- The recipient's contribution may be either for a specific activity or for general services and contributions such as continued membership in the Association with active participation either as an executive officer, committee chairperson or committee member.
- While membership in ACMLA shall normally be a prerequisite, that shall not preclude consideration of outstanding non-members.
- An award shall preferably be awarded to a person while still active in the field, rather than at an early stage or post-retirement.
- Probable attendance at the annual conference should be considered, but should not be the deciding factor.
- To facilitate and encourage the recipient's attendance at the conference, he/she should be informed of the pending award.
- The Awards Committee, having considered all nominations for an award, shall come to a unanimous agreement on the choice of a recipient.
- The Awards Committee shall forward their decision to the Executive of the ACMLA for their approval one month prior to the annual conference.
Guidelines for the ACMLA Cathy Moulder Paper Award
- The Cathy Moulder Paper Award will consist of a monetary award of $200.00.
- This award is to be made during the annual conference.
- The award will usually, though not necessarily, be given on an annual basis.
- Nominations for this award, while primarily the responsibility of the Awards Committee members, may be made by an individual member.
- The papers which will be considered for this award will consist of papers which have appeared in any issue of the ACMLA Bulletin for the calendar year preceding the conference.
- Papers appearing in the Bulletin will be eligible for consideration if they are three pages or more in length.
- Only papers of sufficient length, appearing in the Bulletin, which are not regular features, but are instead feature articles, will be considered for this award. Continued articles and co-authored articles shall be given full consideration.
- Articles which are eligible by the above clauses shall be further screened by subject matter. Only articles which made a solid contribution to map librarianship, curatorship or archiveship, including cartobibliographies, shall be considered for this award.
- The Awards Committee and its appointees, shall weigh the degree of originality, uniqueness of subject matter and the depth of research involved in the papers under consideration. The complexity of subject matter, the presentation of such by the author, and technical qualities such as grammatical construction, should all be considered.
- Papers nominated for this award, which fit the above criteria to the satisfaction of the Awards Committee, shall then be subject to evaluation by a person or persons who are not normally members of the Committee.
- The Awards committee shall contact a person or persons of its choice and request a written evaluation of the quality exhibited by a nominated paper.
- Upon receipt of such evaluation, the Awards Committee shall come to a unanimous decision on the choice of a recipient.
- A report shall be made to the Executive on all papers nominated and the results of consideration by the Awards Committee one month prior to the annual conference.
- To facilitate and encourage the recipient's attendance at the annual conference, he/she should be informed of the impending award.
Guidelines for the Student Paper Award
- The Student Paper Award will consist of a prize of $250 and free membership in the Association for one year.
- The award includes an invitation to present the winning paper at the Annual Conference. The Association will waive registration fees and provide a travel stipend up to $250.00 with receipts.
- The award will normally be given on an annual basis to a student from Canada or studying in Canada currently enrolled in a post-secondary institution (college or university).
- The award will be announced at the Association's annual conference.
- The Committee will announce the award using various means so ensure wide participation.
- Papers submitted by the deadline date will be judged by the Awards Committee and the ACMLA Bulletin editor.
- The essay shall be original and published and of no more than 3000 words.
- Primary consideration for the award will be given to the essay's originality and its contribution to new knowledge and insight. Other considerations include the author's demonstration of the relevance of the subject, the quality of the presentation and documentation, and the literary merits of the essay.
- A Report shall be made to the Executive on all papers submitted the results of the consideration by the Awards Committee one month prior to the Annual Conference.