Almost every year since 1975, the Library Research Round Table has given one or more awards to honor excellent research. The names of the awards have changed over the years and may be summarized as follows:
The winners of each award are listed below:
The award was established by the Library Research Round Table to encourage excellence in library research this award of $500 was presented annually to the person submitting the best-unpublished paper. Entries were judged on the following points: definition of the research problem, application of research method, clarity of the reporting of the reporting of the research, and significance of the conclusions.
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1975 (2 awards) |
Maurice P. Marchant “University Libraries as Economic Systems” [later published in College & Research Libraries 36: 449-57 November 1975] and “Patterns of Staff Involvement in University Library Management: A Field Study” (2 papers) |
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Robert L. Burr “Toward a General Theory of Circulation” [later published as Occasional Paper, no. 130, University of Illinois, Graduate School of Library Science 1977] | |
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1976 (2 awards) |
James C. Baughman “Toward a Structural Approach to Collection Development” [later published in College & Research Libraries 38: 341-8 May 1977] |
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Ruth Wender, Esther Fruehauf, Marilyn Vent, and Connie Wilson “The Determination of Clinician Continuing Education Needs from a Literature Search Study” [later published in Medical Library Association Bulletin 65: 330-4 July 1977] | |
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1977 (2 awards) |
Herbert S. White and Karen N. Hasenjager “Some Measurements of the Impact of the Rapid Growth of Library Doctoral Programs” |
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Robert W. Burns, Jr. “Library Performance Measures as Seen in the Descriptive Statistics Generated by a Computer Managed Circulation System” | |
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1978 |
Wayne A. Wiegand “Scholarly Research in American Library History: Herbert Putnam’s Appointment as Librarian of Congress as a Test Case” |
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1979 |
Charles R. McClure “Perceived Values of Information Sources in Library Decision-Making” |
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1980 |
George D’Elia “The Development and Testing of a Conceptual Model of Public Library User Behavior” |
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1981 |
NO AWARD |
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1982 |
George D’Elia and Sandra Walsh “User Satisfaction with Library Service—A Measure of Public Library Performance” [later published in Library Quarterly 53(2): 109-133 April 1983] |
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1983 |
NO AWARD |
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1984 |
George D’Elia and Sandra Walsh “Patron Use and Evaluation of Library Service: A Comparison Across Five Public Libraries” [later published in Library and Information Science Research 7: 3-30 January 1985] |
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1985 |
NO AWARD |
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1986 |
Charles McClure and Peter Hernon “Unobtrusive Testing of Library Reference Services: An Experimental Approach” [later published in Library Journal 111: 37-41 April 15, 1986] |
Several years after the death of Jesse Shera in 1982, LRRT obtained permission from his family to use the Shera name. Also, funds were raised for an Endowment Fund to support the award.
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1987 |
NO AWARD |
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1988 |
Danny P. Wallace and Bert R. Boyce “Holdings as a Measure of Journal Value” [later published in Library and Information Science Research 11: 59-71 January 1989] |
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1989 |
Carol C. Kuhlthau, Betty J. Turock, Mary W. George, Robert J. Belvin “Validating a Model of the Search Process: A Comparison of Academic, Public, and School Libraries” [later published in Library and Information Science Research 12: 5-31 January 1990] |
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1990 |
Charles R. McClure, Ann Bishop, and Philip Doty “Electronic Networks, the Research Process, and Scholarly Communication: An Empirical Study with Policy Recommendations for the National Research and Education Network” |
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1991 |
Patricia Dewdney and Roma M. Harris “Community Information Needs: The Case of Wife Assault” [later published in Library and Information Science Research 14: 5-29 January/March 1992] |
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1992 (2 awards) |
Charles A. (Tony) Schwartz “Research Significance: Behavioral Patterns and Outcomes Characteristics” [later published in Library Quarterly 62: 123-49 April 1992] |
| Mary Niles Maack and Joanne Passet “Aspirations and Mentoring in an Academic Environment: Women Faculty in Library and Information Science” | |
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1993 |
NO AWARD |
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1994 |
Judith Serebnick and Frank Quinn "Measuring Diversity of Opinion in Public Library Collections" |
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1995 |
Catherine S. Ross “If They Read Nancy Drew, So What? – Readers Talk Back” [later published in Library and Information Science Research 17: 201-36 Summer 1995] |
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1996 |
NO AWARD |
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1997 |
NO AWARD |
After several years when no worthy, unpublished papers were submitted, LRRT established a committee to study the problem. The committee recommended that two awards be given annually, one to honor a paper published in the previous calendar year (Award can be viewed here) and one completed by a student in the course of study for the doctoral degree in LIS (Award can be viewed here).
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1998 |
Allyson Carlyle “Fulfilling the Second Objective in the Online Catalog: Schemes for Organizing Author and Work Records into Usable Displays”, Library Resources & Technical Services 41(2): 79-100 April 1997 |
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1999 (2 awards) |
Christine Pawley “What to Read and How to Read: The Social Infrastructure of Young People’s Reading, Osage, Iowa, 1870-1900”, Library Quarterly 68(3): 276-97 July 1998 |
| Pamela Spence Richards “Soviet-American library Relations in the 1920s and 1930s: A Study in Mutual Fascination and Distrust”, Library Quarterly 68(4): 390-405 October 1998 | |
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2000 |
Karen M. Drabenstott, Schelle Simcox, and Eileen G. Fenton “End-User Understanding of Subject Heading in Library Catalogs”, Library Resources & Technical Services, 43(3): 141-160 July 1999 |
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2001 |
NO AWARD |
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2002 |
NO AWARD |
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2003 |
George D’Elia, Corinne Jorgensen, Joseph Woelfel, and Eleanor Jo Rodger “The Impact of the Internet on Public Library Use: An Analysis of the Current Consumer Market for Library and Internet Services,” Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 53 (10): 802-820, 2002 |
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2004 |
Jeffrey D. Kushkowski, Kathy A. Parsons, and William H. Wiese “Master's and Doctoral Thesis Citations: Analysis and Trends of a Longitudinal Study,” portal: Libraries and the Academy, 3 (3): 459-479, 2003 |
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2005 |
Karen E. Fisher, Joan C. Durrance and Marian Bouch Hinton, "Information Grounds and the Use of Need-Based Services by Immigrants in Queens, NY: A Context-Based, Outcome Evaluation Approach," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 55 (8) 2004 |
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2006 |
Helen Georgas and John Cullars, for "A Citation Study of the Characteristics of the Linguistics Literature,” College and Research Libraries, Vol. 66, No. 6 (November 2005): 496-515 |
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2007 |
Gary Marchionini, Paul Solomon, Cheryl Davis, and Terrell Russell, for “Information and Library Science MPACT: A Preliminary Analysis," Library and Information Science Research, vol. 28, 2006, pp. 580-500 |
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2008 |
Eric M. Meyers, Karen E. Fisher, and Elizabeth Marcoux, for "Studying the everyday information behavior of tweens: Notes from the field," Library and Information Science Research vol. 29, 2007, pp. 310-331. |
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2009 |
Lynn Westbrook, for "Understanding Crisis Information Needs in Context: The Case on Intimate Partner Violence Survivor," Library Quarterly 78 (3): 237-261. |
In 2003, this award's title was changed from the Jesse H. Shera Award for Excellence in Doctoral Research to the current title of the Jesse H. Shera Award for Support of Dissertation Research.
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1998 |
NO AWARD |
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1999 |
NO AWARD |
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2000 |
Robert Carey, Ph.D. student, Faculty of Information and Media Studies, The University of Western Ontario, “Claiming the Inevitable Argument, User Fees and Professional Discourse in Librarianship” |
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2001 |
NO AWARD |
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2002 |
NO AWARD |
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2003 |
NO AWARD |
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2004 |
NO AWARD |
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2005 |
Donghee Sinn, Ph.D. student, School of Information Science, University of Pittsburgh, "Records and the Understanding of Violent Events: Archival Documentation, Historical Perception, and the No Gun Ri Massacre in the Korean War" |
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2006 |
Rebecca Miller, Ph.D. Candidate, School of Library and Information Management, Emporia State University, for “The Diffusion of Professional Knowledge in Intercultural Exchanges: The American-Bulgarian Library Exchange Case Study" |
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2007 |
Melissa Just, University of Southern California, Rossier School of Education, for “Measuring Medline Searching Skills Acquisition and Retention in Medical Students.” |
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2008 |
Sharon McQueen, University of Wisconsin-Madison for The story of "'The story of Ferdinand': The creation of a cultural icon." |