The John Cotton Dana Library Public Relations Award, usually referred to as the John Cotton Dana Award, is an annual

award An award, sometimes called a distinction, is something given to a recipient as a token of recognition of excellence in a certain field. When the token is a medal, ribbon or other item designed for wearing, it is known as a decoration. An awar ...

given by Core: Leadership, Infrastructure, Futures,

American Library Association The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with 49,727 members ...

for excellence in

library A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...

public relations Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. ...

. It is named for

John Cotton Dana John Cotton Dana (born August 19, 1856, in Woodstock, Vermont – died July 21, 1929, in Newark, New Jersey) was an American library and museum director who sought to make these cultural institutions relevant to the daily lives of citizens. As ...

, a Progressive Era librarian who strove to make libraries accessible to as many people as possible. This award has been given continuously since 1946 and is sponsored by

EBSCO Information Services EBSCO Information Services, headquartered in Ipswich, Massachusetts, is a division of EBSCO Industries Inc., a private company headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama. EBSCO provides products and services to libraries of very many types around the ...

, the H.W. Wilson Foundation and the Library Leadership and Management Association (LLAMA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA). Eight winners receive a $10,000 prize and a plaque. The award is considered to be the ALA's most prestigious honor. The John Cotton Dana Awards are presented at a reception hosted by EBSCO during the American Library Association's annual conference.

History

The John Cotton Dana Award was created to replace the Wilson Publicity Honor Roll, a three-year plan sponsored by the H.W. Wilson Company and the ALA Public Relations Committee. The first Honor Roll recipients were named in 1940 and this inaugural class consisted of 52 libraries. The Honor Roll was awarded from 1940 to 1942. In 1942, at the ALA's Annual Conference in Milwaukee, the Public Relations Committee convinced the ALA Council that a new, permanent publicity award was necessary. Implementation of this new award was held off until the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. Initially, two awards were presented: the John Cotton Dana Awards and the John Cotton Dana Special Awards. These two awards were combined into a single award beginning with the 1996 winners. The awards were streamlined to eliminate any misconceptions that the Special Award was a less significant honor.

Notable Award Recipients

The

Savannah State College ) , established = , closed = , type = Public historically black university , parent = University System of Georgia , academic_affiliation = Space-grant , endowment ...

Library under the leadership of E. J. Josey won the award in 1962 and 1964, for the Great Book Discussion Group and the Library Lecture Series, two programs which "attracted large numbers of whites into the Savannah State College campus for the first time".Renate Chancellor, ''E. J. Josey: Transformational leader of the modern library profession'', Rowman & Littlefield, 2020; p. 42. Previous recipients of the John Cotton Dana Award for Leadership include John H. Falk and Lynn Dierking,

Oregon State University Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering c ...

and the Institute for Learning Innovation; Marian Godfrey, Director of the Culture Programs, The Pew Charitable Trusts, Philadelphia; Diane Frankel, Institute of Library and Museum Services; Marlene Chambers, Director, Publications, Denver Art Museum; Joel Bloom, Director,

Franklin Institute Science Museum The Franklin Institute is a science museum and the center of science education and research in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is named after the American scientist and statesman Benjamin Franklin. It houses the Benjamin Franklin National Memoria ...

, Philadelphia, PA; and Michael Spock, Director, Boston Children’s Museum.

Criteria

The award is open to all libraries. Previous winners have included public libraries,

school libraries A school library (or a school library media center) is a library within a school where students, staff, and often, parents of a Public school (government funded), public or private school have access to a variety of resources. The goal of the ...

, special libraries, and

academic libraries An academic library is a library that is attached to a higher education institution and serves two complementary purposes: to support the curriculum and the research of the university faculty and students. It is unknown how many academic librar ...

. Entry documents are available through EBSCO. Entries are judged on the criteria of Needs Assessment and Planning, Implementation, and Evaluation. Each of the five judges are previous winners of the award.

References

External links

Award home page at sponsor's website
{{ALA(library) American Library Association American awards