The Librarians Association of the University of California, Los Angeles (LAUC-LA) invites nominations for its 2009 Librarian of the Year award.  The deadline for nominations is Friday, March 13th, at 5 p.m.

This award recognizes excellence in librarianship that furthers the teaching and research mission of UCLA and responds to the intellectual, informational, and cultural needs of the university community.  Candidates should embody one or more of the following: creativity, innovation, courage, leadership, or scholarship.

A candidate should be nominated for a specific contribution made during his/hernemployment at UCLA over the past twelve to eighteen months, rather than for overall career achievement.  All UCLA librarians employed fifty percent time or more can be nominated.

To submit a nomination, use the online nomination form .  Supporting documentation can be submitted to strengthen a nomination; strong documentation increases a candidate’s chances of winning.  Nominations and supporting materials will be kept strictly confidential.

Supporting documentation can be submitted to strengthen a nomination, and may include letters of support from faculty, staff, other librarians, or students. Documentation should describe what the nominee has accomplished and how it has benefited the author and the university.  It may also include Web sites related to the nominee’s work, citations to publications, descriptions of research, media coverage, or publicity materials like brochures.  Send supporting documentation to Esther Grassian by email or in print.

Nominations and supporting materials will be kept strictly confidential until the award recipient has been announced. Following this announcement, the committee will send a letter to each nominee regarding his/her consideration for this Award, with a summary of points supporting the nomination.

If you have questions or would like more information, contact Esther Grassian by email at or by phone at 310.206.4410.

2009 Librarian of the Year Award Committee

• Esther Grassian, Chair
• Ruby Gutierrez
• Kris Kasianovitz
• Faculty Representative: Professor Elizabeth Bjork (Past Chair, UCLA Academic Senate)

LAUC is the University of California’s primary organization for professional librarian and governance affairs.

Supporting Documentation

Supporting documentation is not required in order to submit a nomination for the Librarian of the Year award. However, strong documentation increases the nominee’s chances of winning.

Most supporting documentation takes the form of letters of support. These letters can come from a variety of faculty or librarian colleagues and should be fairly detailed, from 2-5 pages in length, chronicling what the nominee has accomplished and how it benefited not only the party writing the letter, but also the academic mission of the university as a whole.

Other kinds of supporting documentation can include:

• Web site addresses relating to the nominee’s work
• Campus or local press print publicity (such as Daily Bruin or UCLA Today articles)
• Brochures or Library generated publicity relating to the librarian’s contributions
• Citations to publications
• Descriptions of research