HomeGovernment Documents Round Table (GODORT) Committees Awards 

James Bennett Childs Award
LexisNexis/GODORT/ALA "Documents to the People" Award
NewsBank/Readex/GODORT/ALA Catharine J. Reynolds Research Grant Award
Bernadine Abbott Hoduski Founders Award
W. David Rozkuszka Scholarship

Grace York, Coordinator of the Documents Center of the University of Michigan Libraries, is the 2006 recipient of the James Bennett Childs Award.

This award is being presented to Grace for her distinguished and sustained contributions to documents librarianship. Grace not only recognized the potential value of networked telecommunications to librarianship as a member of the GODORT Ad Hoc Committee on the Internet from 1993 to 1995, but she was one of the earliest people to put it to work for us and our patrons' benefit, first in the form of Gopher and then as the mighty Documents Center website.

Since its inception in 1995, the award-winning Documents Center website has been an invaluable reference tool. It remains groundbreaking in its use of new technologies including web feeds and video casting. One of Grace's nominators pointed out that the Documents Center's home page and many internal pages are individually cataloged in OCLC. Grace has also always used the Documents Center and its predecessors as a springboard for providing service to other librarians.

Grace has hosted the ALA-GODORT Handout Exchange since 1994. She also provided services to the depository community such as hosting searching of and back issues of the Government Printing Office's Administrative Notes from September 1995 to December 2004.

All of Grace's nominators also noted her national reputation as an expert on Census statistics and the tools to use them. Indeed, she was providing Census data free on the Internet in 1991. Grace also served as the GODORT liaison to the Census Bureau on DVD software and American FactFinder issues for the 2000 Census.

Additionally, Grace represented the United States at the International Conference on Government Information and Democracy, St. Petersburg, Russia in May 2000 and coordinated reciprocal visits by Russian librarians to Ann Arbor in August 2000 and June 2001.

Grace's enthusiasm for sharing government information and good humor in doing so have made her the quintessential quotable librarian. She's been known to tell new acquaintances "I'm a Government Documents Librarian. It's my job to know where the bodies are buried and ensure the public's right to know" or to ask for scanning advice for historical documents on Govdoc-L and define historical as "yesterday or older".

Therefore, in honor of her years of leadership, her gift for using technology to facilitate public access to information and her future as a recipient of FULL Social Security benefits, GODORT presents Grace York with the 2006 James Bennett Childs Award.

Sherry Mosley, Government Documents Department Head at Florida International University Libraries, is given the Lexis/Nexis/GODORT/ALA “Documents to the People” Award for her role in the creation of the Everglades Information & Digital Library (EDL). Celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2006, the EDL is one of the oldest digital libraries in continuous operation.

Sherry’s vision, initiative, and team leadership were instrumental in initiating, implementing, and sustaining a project that encompasses collection development, access, public service, and outreach efforts. The EDL not only provides access to more than 1500 full-text or full-image documents but it also offers a virtual reference service known as ‘Ask an Everglades Librarian.’ The site is visited by more than 120,000 users annually.

A colleague notes that, “The Everglades Information Network does well what government information specialists need increasingly to do in the digital environment – integrate gov docs seamlessly with other information resources, both in the library and elsewhere on the Web.”

The 2006 recipient of the Award is Julie A. Linden, Government Information Librarian, Yale University. Julie is interested in developing a broad and deep understanding of the content domain of U.S. federal documents and of the management of tangible legacy collections and digital collections.

With the grant funding Julie plans to analyze and document options for long-term preservation and usability of the online-only Foreign Relations of the United States series. She will compare the costs of long-term preservation options including manual or automated harvesting of the digital files and printing and binding files into paper volumes. Her comparison will encompass both materials and staff costs. She also plans to examine the online series from a usability perspective to consider whether online or print format is more usable for certain purposes and whether the online format could be made more useful.

Receipt of this $2000 grant will help Julie develop a thorough understanding of the options for the preservation of online titles including cost and usability issues. Heavy use of Foreign Relations of the United States at her university prompted her to select it for this grant.

Julie expects funding from this project to be useful in analyzing local preservation options for other online-only titles. She plans to submit an article reporting the results of her research to DttP: Documents to the People.

The 2006 Bernadine Abbott Hoduski Founders Award is presented to Ann Marie Sanders, Regional Government Documents Librarian for the State of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. This award recognizes documents librarians who may not be known at the national level but who have made significant contributions to the field. Their contributions are to have benefited not only the individual’s institution, but also the profession. These criteria easily describe Ann Marie Sanders. This award is being presented to Ann for her work as the Government Documents Librarian at the Library of Michigan. As Ann’s nomination letter states, “Ann [Sanders] replaced Ann Diamond as my Regional Librarian in the fall of 1995, and she hit the ground running! She set up an ambitious schedule for personally visiting depository libraries in the state�” One of Ann’s nomination letters began, “We Michiganians would prefer to keep Ann Marie Sanders all to ourselves.

What a dynamo with a heart and soul as large as the entire depository library program! But alas, our mothers taught us to share. So – for Mom’s sake and for Ann’s – I am delighted to support her nomination�” The letter continues, “Most impressive is the individual care she has given to each of the selective depositories with her region� In addition to individual care, Ann has been exemplary in providing numerous training sessions for new depository librarians, professional associations and the public each year.”

"Ann� is always looking to improve the services that her regional depository offers to the depository librarians in her state,” according to one of her supporting letters. Another writes, “She is an innovative thinker and someone willing and able to meet new challenges for the achievement of broader success for her depository libraries statewide�"

Ann’s work with the Depository Library Council and within the network of Regional Depository libraries was also noted. Ann helped create the Regional’s website and hosts that site at her Library. With the recent decision of Detroit Pubic Library to relinquish regional status, Ann has assumed total responsibility for regional service within Michigan for 40+ selectives. Involvement with the U.S. Government Printing Office was documented listing her presentations at meetings held by GPO and her work with their first pilot project for consultants. It is clear that Ann’s efforts have impacted the libraries in Michigan as well as the depository librarians that have attended her national presentations. Receiving this award is a well-deserved honor for Ann.

The W. David Rozkuszka Scholarship award winner for 2006 is Kevin Reynolds. The Rozkuszka award provides financial assistance to an individual who is currently working with government documents in a library and is working to complete a masters’ degree in library science. Kevin, the 2006 award winner, is enrolled in the University of Tennessee School of Information Sciences and expects to receive his masters’ degree in May 2008.

Kevin has worked in libraries for more than 12 years and was head of the government documents department at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee for six years. Currently, as the Assistant University Librarian for Learning and Access Services at the University of the South, he supervises Circulation, Reference, and the Archives and Special Collections and serves as the point person for the depository collections.

Kevin has been associated with government documents since he worked as an undergraduate student worker for Larry Romans at Vanderbilt University Library. It was this experience that made him realize that librarianship was where he wanted to work and that government information was of special interest. It was a surprise to many on the Awards Committee that Kevin did not already have his library degree because he has been active in national and state associations for several years.

He has served as chair of the Tennessee GODORT and the Tennessee Advisory Committee on State Documents, as chair of the GODORT Legislation Committee, and he currently serves as the chair of the ALA Committee on Legislation Government Information Subcommittee. GODORT members know well the level of commitment and dedication that is required in working with the legislation committees.

Kevin’s long-term goals are to obtain a position that provides him an opportunity to spend more time on government information policy issues; it could be in library administration or as a teacher. Wherever he works, he intends to spend some time as a practicing reference librarian as he believes that the experience will make him a better administrator or educator.

Kevin’s letters of support from GODORT and Tennessee colleagues applaud his dedication, commitment, intelligence, energy and enthusiasm for public access to government information and encourage his pursuit of the graduate degree in library science. It is a pleasure to award this scholarship to an individual who has been an active GODORT member for many years.