ALL-SIS Seeks Nominations for Annual Awards

The ALL-SIS Awards Committee (George Pike, Jim Milles, and Sally Wambold) is now accepting nominations for the following three awards.

The Frederick Charles Hicks Award for Outstanding Contributions to Academic Law Librarianship recognizes an individual or group which has made outstanding contributions to academic law librarianship through continued efforts to improve law librarianship. The award, presented by the Academic Law Libraries Special Interest Section (ALL-SIS) of the American Association of Law Libraries, is named in honor of Frederick Charles Hicks, the first great American law librarian/scholar who was also the first academic law librarian to serve as president of AALL. Past recipients have included Penny Hazelton, Frank Houdek, Dick Danner, Bob Berring and Tim Coggins.

Criteria:

A nominee can be an individual or a group, and should exhibit extended and sustained contributions in one or more of the following areas:

• History of contributions to the field of law librarianship through research, publications and other activities displaying an active participation in the advancement of academic law librarianship;
• Achievement in a particular area of academic law librarianship;
• Service to AALL;
• Service to the ALL-SIS

Submission Procedure:

Individuals may nominate themselves or others. Preference will be given to members of the ALL-SIS.

Nominations must include:

• A letter of nomination, including the candidate’s full name, title, and institution name and address. If the candidate is retired, include name, home address, and most recent former employer;
• A narrative supporting the nomination, to include a discussion of the candidate’s contributions to academic law librarianship;
• The name, e-mail and phone number of the nominating party.

Nomination materials may be sent electronically or in paper (5 copies) to the ALL-SIS Awards Committee Chair.

The award will be presented annually at the discretion of the Awards Committee.

Deadline: All nominations must be received by March 31, 2005.

The ALL-SIS Outstanding Article Award honors section members for contributions to the enhancement of academic law librarianship through publishing. Articles published in any format in any publication other than Law Library Journal and AALL Spectrum (articles from those publications are eligible for AALL Article of the Year awards) during the year prior to the award qualify for consideration. Any aspect of academic law librarianship may be addressed. A plaque will be presented to the author or authors of the winning articles. The 2004 recipients of the award were Nancy Carol Carter for her article, The Special Case of Alaska: Native Law and Research, 22 Legal Reference Services Quarterly 11 (2003) and Matthew Condon for his article, Beyond Mere Competency: Advanced Legal Research in a Practice-Oriented Curriculum, 55 Baylor Law Review 1 (2003).

Criteria:

• Article must be authored by an ALL-SIS member. For co-authored articles, at least one author must be a member of ALL-SIS.
• Nominated articles for each year’s award must have been published in the previous calendar year, i.e. 2004.
• Articles will be evaluated on:
• Relevance of topic to some aspect of academic law librarianship, including but not limited to public services, technical services, legal research or teaching;
• Quality of writing;
• Effectiveness of communication technique.
• Articles may have appeared in any publication (paper or electronic) including AALL publications (except Law Library Journal or AALL Spectrum), chapter newsletters, non-AALL publications, or in-house publications.
• When appropriate, awards will be presented for excellence in writing in different areas of academic law librarianship, such as technical services, public services, or administration.
• Awards will not be presented in a given year if the Committee does not feel submissions meet the award criteria.

Submission Procedure:

• Articles for consideration may be sent electronically or in paper (5 copies) to the ALL-SIS Awards Committee Chair (George Pike, pike@law.pitt.edu).
• Articles may be submitted for consideration by any AALL member, including the authors.

Deadline: All nominations/submissions must be received by March 31, 2005.

The ALL-SIS Outstanding Service Award honors an ALL-SIS member who has made outstanding contributions to the SIS in areas of section activity and in professional service.

Criteria:

The following criteria will be considered in reviewing nominations for this award. Nominees may excel in one or more of the following areas:

• Outstanding leadership in the Section, at meetings, and in committee work.
• Special and notable service to the Section, such as participation in special projects.
• Participation in Section educational programs and public speaking activities.
• Mentoring activities which encourage others in the section.
• Activities which encourage others to join the Section.

The above list is not intended to be an exhaustive list of criteria. Individuals whose contributions to the Section take other forms may also be nominated.

Submission Procedure:

Individuals may nominate themselves or others. Nominees must be a member of the ALL-SIS, active or retired. Nominations may be submitted by any SIS member.

Nominations must include:

• A letter of nomination, including the candidate’s full name, title, and institution name and address. If the candidate is retired, include name, home address, and most recent former employer;
• A narrative supporting the nomination, to include a discussion of the candidate’s contribution to the SIS;
• A curriculum vitae of the candidate;
• The name, e-mail address and phone number of the nominating party.

Current Executive Board members and Awards Committee members are ineligible for nomination.

Deadline: All nominations must be received by March 31, 2005

Nominations/submissions for all three awards may be sent in print or electronically to the ALL-SIS Awards Committee Chair, George H. Pike (pike@law.pitt.edu), Barco Law Library, Room 404, University of Pittsburgh School of Law, 3900 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15260. Questions can be directed to the chair at 412-648-1322 or pike@law.pitt.edu.