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GSLIS Student Awards

This page is a list of student awards presented at GSLIS Convocation in May of each year.

Award Name

Brief Description

Best Paper Award, ITS Minor

The ITS Best Paper award is given to the author of a paper or project completed as part of the requirements for one of the LIS courses in the undergraduate Information Technology Studies (ITS) minor. Papers are nominated by instructors of the courses, with each instructor identifying the best paper from their course. These nominations are evaluated by a committee established by the faculty of Graduate School of Library and Information Science.

Recipients

Bryce Allen Award for Reference Services

This award is presented to an outstanding GSLIS student showing excellence and interest in the area of reference services. Bryce Allen was a GSLIS faculty member from 1989 to 1995. In 2001, he retired to Nova Scotia from his faculty position at the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Information Science and Learning Technologies. Bryce was devoted to his students and LIS education. With Professor Linda Smith, he developed the LIS 404 Reference and Information Services course and he contributed the chapter on "Evaluation of Reference Services" to all three editions of the Smith and Bopp text, Reference and Information Services: An Introduction. Bryce was so interested in both teaching and practice that he spent a semester working at the Main Library Reference Desk so that he could ensure he kept in touch with the sources and services he taught. In the fall of 1996, Bryce taught the first LEEP 380 Information Organization and Access class from his desktop in Columbia, Missouri. Dr. Allen died unexpectedly on April 27, 2003.

Recipients

C. Berger Group Entrepreneurial Promise Award

This award is given to a student who exhibits unusual creativity, reflects an innovative spirit and shows the most promise for an outstanding career in a special library, non-traditional library setting or as an entrepreneur. Sponsor of the award is C. Berger Group, Inc., Carol Stream, IL.

Recipients

Berner-Nash Memorial Award

The Berner-Nash award is given to the person writing an outstanding doctoral dissertation. The Award was established by graduate students in the early 1970's in honor of two graduates, Mr. Bill Berner and Mr. Bill Nash, who were tragically killed in an automobile accident.

Recipients

Anne M. Boyd Award / Beta Phi Mu

For many years Miss Anne M. Boyd was a distinguished and beloved member of the Faculty of the Graduate School of Library and Information Science. In her honor the Alpha Chapter of Beta Phi Mu presents an award to the one MS graduate each year who, by vote of the faculty, is judged to be outstanding. Students, by virtue of a grade point average of 4.0 and graduation in August, October, January or May, are to be considered for nomination for the Boyd Award. Additional criteria to be considered are:

  1. Commitment to the profession of librarianship.
  2. Ability to relate to other people.
  3. Contributions to the School through participation in organizations and activities.
  4. Potential leadership qualities.

Recipients

Jane B. and Robert B. Downs Professional Promise Award

The Jane B. and Robert B. Downs Award is given in honor of Dean Emeritus Robert B. Downs to the MS candidate with the greatest professional promise.

Mr. S. R. Shapiro, a New York book dealer, established this award to remind people of Dr. Robert B. Downs' many contributions in the areas of librarianship and in library science publishing.

Recipients

Faculty Special Award of Merit

The GSLIS community culture encourages students to become involved in the life of the School. Threaded through coursework, research projects, assistantships, student professional groups, lab time and social activities are many opportunities to add value to the educational experience of others as well as enhance and refine one's own personal skills and characteristics.

From time to time, a student adds some special contribution to GSLIS that may not be within the scope of a previously established award but deserves public recognition. To honor such a student, the faculty voted in May 1999 to give a Faculty Special Award of Merit, with criteria open to allow such special recognition each year when warranted.

Recipients

Herbert Goldhor Award for Public Librarianship

The Herbert Goldhor Award for Public Librarianship is sponsored by The Friends of the Urbana Free Library to recognize an outstanding GSLIS student showing excellence and interest in entering the area of public librarianship.

Recipients

Peggy Harris Award

The Peggy Harris Award was established in 1995, in memory of Peggy Harris, a former staff member. It is given to the individual who most exemplifies the spirit of volunteerism, and a concern for others and for the welfare of the School.

Recipients

Health Sciences Information Management Award

The Health Sciences Information Management Award was established in 1992 by Dr. Prudence Dalrymple, a former faculty member, in honor of her father, to recognize an outstanding GSLIS student showing excellence and interest in entering the area of health sciences librarianship.

Recipients

Information Systems/Technologies Award

Established in 1995 by the faculty in recognition of the most significant achievement in information systems or application of information technologies by a student.

Recipients

Frances B. Jenkins Award

Dr. Frances B. Jenkins taught science reference and bibliography and directed the Bio-medical librarianship program at the School for a number of years. Upon her retirement, her friends and colleagues established a fund, the income from which is used to provide an award each year to the master's degree student who exhibits the greatest potential as a science librarian. Other criteria to be considered are:

  1. Prior outstanding academic and/or work experience in the sciences.
  2. Personal commitment to the field of science librarianship.
  3. Academic excellence in course work as a candidate for the MS degree.
  4. Potential for professional success in science librarianship.

Recipients

The Library School Alumni Association Student Award

This award recognizes a student who "caught the spirit" of the library and information science profession while employed in a library setting and so chose to enter the masters program. This student must have a strong commitment to return to a professional position in a library setting and help others "catch the spirit."

Recipients

Alice Lohrer Award for Literature and Library Services for Youth

This award, named in honor of M. Alice Lohrer who is a graduate (BS 37, MS 44) and served as a member of the faculty from 1941 to 1974, is given annually to a student who shows outstanding promise in the field of literature and library services for youth. The award is funded by ten alumni and friends of Miss Lohrer. The recipient will receive a certificate and a gift of $100.

Recipients

Hazel C. Rediger Award

Given to a student who demonstrates strong intellectual curiosity and interests both in the classroom and outside it. The award is given by Jana R. Bradley (Ph.D. '91) in honor of her mother, Hazel C. Rediger, who exemplifies in the highest degree a spirit of enthusiastic intellectual questioning and questing and a commitment to libraries as institutions essential to intellectual vitality.

Recipients

Joseph Rediger Librarian as Humanist Award

Given to a student who, in the opinion of the faculty, best exhibits the characteristics of a humanist, broadly defined. The award is established by Jana R. Bradley (Ph.D. '91) in memory of Joseph Rediger (1898-1994).

Recipients

Social Justice Award

The surest way to a just society is through literacy and universal access to information. This award of $100 is given to a student who has shown a special interest in providing or enhancing library and information services to groups whose needs fall outside the parameters of traditional services. Lionelle Elsesser (MS 67) sponsors this award.

Recipients



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