Phyllis Dain Library History Dissertation Award

About the Phyllis Dain Library History Dissertation Award
The Library History Round Table of the American Library Association (ALA) sponsors the biennial Phyllis Dain Library History Dissertation Award. The award is offered only in odd-numbered years. The award, named in honor of a library historian widely known as a supportive advisor and mentor as well as a rigorous scholar and thinker, recognizes outstanding dissertations in English in the general area of library history. Five hundred dollars and a certificate are given for a selected dissertation that embodies original research on a significant topic relating to the history of libraries during any period, in any region of the world.

The award, named in honor of a library historian widely known as a supportive advisor and mentor as well as a rigorous scholar and thinker, recognizes outstanding dissertations in the general area of library history.

Administered by:

Library History Round Table (LHRT) logo

2015 Winner(s)

Miriam Intrator

Intrator's dissertation on postwar cultural reconstruction wins Dain Award

Miriam Intrator won the Phyllis Dain Library History Dissertation Award for her dissertation, “Books Across Borders and Between Libraries: UNESCO and the Politics of Postwar Cultural Reconstruction, 1945-1951.”

Her dissertation focuses on the response of UNESCO’s Library Section, in cooperation with other international, national and Jewish organizations, to the cultural and intellectual destruction suffered in Europe during WWII and their plans for postwar reconstruction regarding books, libraries and archives. The dissertation offers original insights into the recovery of cultural life in postwar and post-Holocaust Europe and highlights the individuals who formulated the argument for access to books and libraries, to knowledge and culture, as a fundamental human right within the context of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.