CHICAGO —The Library History Round Table has awarded Ashley Maynor the 2012 Justin Winsor Prize. The award, $100 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 winning essay will be considered for publication in Information & Culture: A Journal of History. The award is named in honor of the distinguished 19th century librarian, historian and bibliographer who was also ALA's first president.
Maynor received the award for her essay "All the World’s Memory: Implications for the Internet as Archive and Portal for Our Cultural Heritage." The award committee was impressed by the range of the paper, its careful and comprehensive coverage and documentation of its sources and the masterly way in which it weaves together descriptions of projects as diverse as Otlet’s Encyclopædia microphotica mundaneum, Resnais’ "Toute la mémoire du monde," Bush’s Memex and LC’s American memory project. The paper delineates a strong and continuing urge to grapple with the many problems of preserving the human record using all available technologies.
The award committee is gratified to note that the winning essay was chosen from a strong field that demonstrated that both interest in, and the quality of, research into library history are high.
The Library History Round Table of the American Library Association exists to facilitate communication among scholars and students of library history, to support research in library history, and to be active in issues, such as preservation, that concern library historians. The round table sponsors conferences, publishes a newsletter and presents awards such as the Justin Winsor Award to promote excellence in library history research.
More information on the Library History Round Table is available online.
To comment, share, or see related resources and images, go here.