Awards

Daniel T. Richards Prize | Award Winners

Collection Development Section
Awards Committee

The Awards Committee is comprised of three members. The Chair of the Collection Development Sections appoints the committee members. Ideally, appointments are for three years and rotate to ensure continuity on the committee. Members of the awards committee may neither be nominated or submit nominations for the award.

Daniel T. Richards Prize

Dan Richards (1945-1995) was instrumental in establishing health sciences collection development as a rigorous discipline with a distinct methodology. To honor his memory and his contributions, an award sponsored by the Collection Development Section (CDS) of the Medical Library Association (MLA) was created in 1998.

The Daniel T. Richards Prize is presented annually to an individual who has authored a work, in any format (print, audiovisual, electronic, etc.), related to collection development in the health sciences. The work must be widely available to the library community and written or produced within the previous 24 months. If a work is nominated in its first year of eligibility but is not awarded the prize, it may be nominated again in its second year of eligibility. In the event there is more than one author, an award certificate will be given to each author and the cash award of $250 will be divided among the authors.

Nominations are due each year by January 15th and are submitted to the Chair of the CDS Awards Committee. Self-nominations are encouraged. Neither the author(s) nor the nominator must be members of CDS or MLA. No more than one award will be given annually. If no worthy nominations are received, the awards committee will not award the prize for that year.

The decision of the committee is final. Five years must elapse before the same individuals are eligible to receive the award again. Notification to the winner, the winner’s institution, Developments and MLA News will be made prior to the MLA annual meeting. The award will be presented at the CDS business meeting at the MLA annual meeting. The winners are not required to be present.

History of the Daniel T. Richards Prize

1998 The Collection Development Section creates the Richards Prize
1999 The prize is awarded for the first time.
2002 Guidelines for the prize are amended and approved at Section Council, to take effect with the 2003 award process. Prior to 2003, a work could only be nominated once, and only the first author was awarded the prize. Now, a work may be nominated in both years of eligibility and all authors are given an award certificate and share the cash award.

List of Past Winners

1999	Lynn M. Fortney, for Index Medicus Price Study, 1994-1998.
2000	Prize not awarded
2001	Deborah D. Blecic, for “Monograph use at an academic health sciences library: the first three years of shelf life,” Bulletin of the Medical Library Association, 88(2): 145-151, April 2000.
2002	Cynthia M. Schmidt, for “Circulation of core collection monographs in an academic medical library,” Bulletin of the Medical Library Association, 89(2): 165-169, April 2001. (with Nancy Eckerman)
2003	Prize not awarded
2004	Prize not awarded
2005	Joann Donatiello, Peter Droese, and Soo Kim, for "A selected, annotated list of materials that support the development of policies designed to reduce racial and ethnic health disparities," Journal of the Medical Library Association, 92(2): 257-65, April 2004
2006	Mary Ann Urbashich, Creator; Debbie McConnell, Reviewer and Contributor; and Carol Lawrence, Reviewer and Contributor for "Core List of Videos in Dementia", Chicago, IL: Green-Field Library and Resource Center, Alzheimer's Association, 2004. http://www.alz.org/national/documents/CoreVideos_RL.doc
2007	Carol M. Shisler, AHIP for her paper "Evaluating your nursing collection: a quick way to preserve nursing history in a working collection" J Med Libr Assoc., 95(3): 278–283, July 2007. To view the article, go to www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1924961
2008	Thompson LL, Higa ML. Journal collection development: challenges, issues, and strategies. In: Introduction to Health Sciences Librarianship. Edited by Sandra Wood. Binghamton, NY: Haworth Press, 2007: 69-96.
2009	The winner of the Daniel T. Richards prize is Leslie Czechowski's article, "Edging toward Perfection: Analysis of a New Approval Plan in a Health Sciences Library," published in Library Collections, Acquisitions, and Technical Services. Full citation: Czechowski L. Edging toward perfection: analysis of a new approval plan in a health sciences library. Libr Collections Acquisitions Tech Serv. 2007;32(2):107-11. Available from: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/14649055
2010	The winners of the Daniel T. Richards prize are Barbara S. Shearer, Carolyn Klatt and Suzanne P. Nagy for their article “Development of a new academic digital library: a study of usage data of a core medical electronic journal collection” published in the Journal of the Medical Library Association. Full citation: Development of a new academic digital library: a study of usage data of a core medical electronic journal collectionBarbara S. Shearer, Carolyn Klatt, and Suzanne P. Nagy J Med Libr Assoc. 2009 April; 97(2): 93–101. doi: 10.3163/1536-5050.97.2.005 PMCID: PMC2670205
2011	The winners of the Daniel T. Richards prize are Ana Ugaz, C. Trenton Boyd, Vicki Croft, Esther Carrigan, and Katherine Anderson for their article “Basic list of veterinary serials, third edition: using a decision matrix to update the core list of veterinary journals” published in the Journal of the Medical Library Association. Full citation: Basic list of veterinary serials, third edition: using a decision matrix to update the core list of veterinary journals. Ana G Ugaz, C. Trenton Boyd, Vicki F Croft, Esther E Carrigan, and Katherine M Anderson J Med Libr Assoc. 2010 October; 98(4): 282-292. doi: 10.3163/1536-5050.98.4.004 PMCID: PMC2947140
2012	Prize was not awarded.
2013	The winners of the Daniel T. Richards prize are Elizabeth Ketterman, Jeanne Hoover and Kathy Cable for their article "Creating a shared neuroscience collection development policy" published in the Journal of Electronic Resources in Medical Libraries. Full citation: Ketterman, E., Hoover, J., & Cable, K. (2012). Creating a shared neuroscience collection development policy. Journal of Electronic Resources in Medical Libraries, 9(3), 197-203. doi: 10.1080/15424065.2012.707076

MEDICAL LIBRARY ASSOCIATION (MLA)
Awards and Honors

Members of the Medical Library Association annually honor individual achievements of high order in specific areas of librarianship. MLA's Awards Committee administers the association's general awards. Collection Development Section members are encouraged to volunteer to serve on the various juries and actively participate in the nomination of individuals and projects for awards and honors.

One MLA award pertinent to the field of collection development is the Louise Darling Medal for Distinguished Achievement in Collection Development in the Health Sciences, which is presented annually to recognize distinguished achievement in collection development in the health sciences.

For more information on all of MLA’s general awards, http://www.mlanet.org/awards/honors/index.html