2018 Justin Winsor Library History Essay Award to Steven Knowlton

CHICAGO — The Library History Round Table of the American Library Association has awarded the 2018 Justin Winsor Library History Essay Award to Steven Knowlton for "A Rapidly Escalating Demand: Academic Libraries and the Birth of Black Studies Programs." Knowlton's essay traces the response of a number of academic libraries to meet the needs of Black Studies programs created as a result of student activism and protest in the 1960s. Knowlton is the librarian for History and African American Studies at the Princeton University Library. While this year featured a particularly strong group of entrants, the award committee unanimously named Knowlton's essay the winner.

The Justin Winsor Library History Essay Award is presented by the Library History Round Table annually to recognize the best unpublished essay written in English on library history. The award is named in honor of the distinguished nineteenth-century librarian, historian, and bibliographer who was also ALA's first president. It consists of a certificate and a $500 cash award, as well as an invitation to have the winner's essay considered for publication in Libraries: Culture, History, and Society (LCHS), the scholarly journal of the Library History Round Table.

For guidelines and a list of previous winners see:  http://www.ala.org/lhrt/awards/windsor-essay-award

The Library History Round Table exists to facilitate communication among scholars and students of library history, to support research in library history and to be active in issues, such as preservation, that concern library historians. The round table sponsors conferences, publishes a newsletter and presents awards such as the Justin Winsor Award to promote excellence in library history research.

For more information on the Library History Round Table see:  http://www.ala.org/lhrt.