ProQuest/SIRS State and Regional

Intellectual Freedom Achievement Award

The ProQuest/SIRS State and Regional Intellectual Freedom Achievement Award is given to the most innovative and effective intellectual freedom project covering a state or region. Programs may be one-time, one-year or ongoing/multi-year efforts. The award consists of a citation and $1,000 donated by ProQuest.

Examples might include a statewide public relations initiative to promote awareness of intellectual freedom, programmatic assistance to meet a broad-based censorship challenge, coalition building or education outreach efforts, or effective reorganization or management of an intellectual freedom committee.

State libraries or library associations, educational media associations or programs, legal defense funds, intellectual freedom committees or coalitions and related parties are eligible for nomination by themselves or others.

Listing of past ProQuest/SIRS State and Regioanl Intellectual Freedom Achievement Award Recipients

2009 ProQuest/SIRS Awards Press Release

Sponsor and Deadline

The SIRS-ProQuest State and Regional Intellectual Freedom Achievement Award is sponsored by the Intellectual Freedom Round Table (IFRT) of the American Library Association (ALA) and ProQuest.

The deadline for nominations is December 1 of each year.

Nominations

Full criteria and nomination forms are available from the Office for Intellectual Freedom, American Library Association, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611.  A PDF of the form is also available below.

Nominations and supporting evidence should be sent to:

Nanette Perez, ALA, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611. Telephone: 312-280-4225 or 800-545-2433, ext. 4225. Fax: 312-280-4227. E-mail: nperez@ala.org. 

Criteria

• A project has been unusually successful in fundraising for the promotion of intellectual efforts in the state or region.
• A state committee, etc. has been unusually successful in coalition-building so that allied groups are marshalled effectively to support intellectual freedom in the state or region.
• A state committee, etc. has done an exemplary PR task in promoting awareness of intellectual freedom issues in the state or region, as judged by numbers reached and/or other results.
• A project has been effective in recruiting activists within and oustide of librarianship to work with the state committee, etc. in intellectual freedom projects.
• A structure has been conceived that markedly enhances the continuity and effectivesness of state chapter efforts in intellectual freedom.
• A committee, etc. has sucsceeded in galvanixing to an unusal extent support for intellectual freedom within a state chapter.
• A state committee, etc. has intervened with special effectiveness in an intellectual freedom crisis in the state or region.  Such intervention should, preferably, in the opinion of the committee, have resulted in a clear victory over the forces of censorship.
• Projects that can be generalized to other chapters will merit special attention of the IFRT State Program Award.

• ProQuest/SIRS State and Regional Intellectual Freedom Achievement Award Nomination Form