RUSA award honors library links with labor

Contact: Liz Markel

Marketing Specialist

NEWS

For Immediate Release

October 14, 2008

CHICAGO--The Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) seeks nominations for the 2009 John Sessions Memorial Award.

The award, a plaque supported by a donation from the AFL-CIO, recognizes a library or library system that has made a significant effort to work with the labor community and has consequently brought recognition of the history and contribution of the labor movement to the development of the United States. The award is named for John Sessions, former American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) co-chair of the AFL-CIO/ALA Joint Committee on Library Service to Labor Groups.

Those interested in submitting a nomination can download the nomination form from the awards section of the RUSA website or request the form from Liz Markel, RUSA Marketing Specialist, via e-mail at lmarkel@ala.org or from Laura Leavitt, chairperson for the award committee, at leavitt9@msu.edu. All nominations must be received by Dec. 15.

Recent award recipients include The Walter P. Reuther Library of Labor and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University, Detroit, Mich., (2008) for its
No Greater Calling online resource chronicling the influence and history of Walter P. Reuther, an American labor union leader, and the James B. Carey Library at the School of Management and Labor Relations, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N.J. (2007) for its role as a resource for in-depth and specialized information resources and service to the labor community. A complete list of recipients is available in the Awards section of the
RUSA website.

The Reference and User Services Association, a division of the American Library Association (
http://www.ala.org/), is the foremost organization of reference and information professionals who make the connections between people and the information sources, services, and collection materials they need.