Sroka wins Justin Winsor Prize

Contact: Mary Jo Lynch


312-280-4273

For Immediate Release


May 2002

Sroka wins Justin Winsor Prize

Marek Sroka is the 2002 winner of the Justin Winsor Prize, presented by the American Library Association (ALA) Library History Round Table (LHRT). The award, $500 and a certificate, is presented annually to the author of an outstanding essay embodying original historical research on a significant subject of library history. The author is also invited to publish the essay in Libraries & Culture.Sroka wins Justin Winsor Prize

An assistant professor of library administration at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Sroka won the prize for his essay, "The Destruction of Jewish Libraries and Archives in Cracow (Krakow) during World War II."

"This essay uses the primary and secondary literature of Poland to tell the story of a neglected part of library history," stated Chair Lorna Peterson. "Its use of multiple language sources is evidence of the careful and deliberate research that went into this paper. The author fills a significant gap in library history by documenting the destruction of a people's culture, intellectual capital and memory. Very little has been written in English on the topic of Jewish libraries and archives in Poland and their destruction. This is a worthy paper that will encourage additional needed work on this subject."

Sroka holds a M.A. in English Language and Literature from the Jagiellonian University at Krakow, Poland and a MLS in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His areas of research include Polish libraries and librarianship, and the Eastern European Internet.

The award will be presented on Sunday, June 16 at the LHRT program "History, Memory, and Preservation" during the ALA Annual Conference in Atlanta.