California Library Association:

ALA Honorary Member Nominees Sought

April 2004

Nominations are now being accepted for Honorary Members of the American Library Association. Honorary membership, ALA's highest honor, is bestowed on living citizens of any country whose contributions to librarianship or a closely related field are so outstanding that they are of significant and lasting importance to the whole field of library service. The honor is intended to reflect positively upon ALA as well as upon the individual. Nominations may be submitted by any ALA member and must be received no later than September 1, 2004.

Honorary Members are elected for life by vote of the ALA Council upon recommendation of the ALA Executive Board. Nominations will be reviewed at the ALA Executive Board's 2004 Fall Meeting and presented to Council for vote at the ALA 2005 Midwinter Meeting. Newly elected Honorary Members will be formally recognized at the Opening General Session of the ALA 2005 Annual Conference.

The criteria for honorary membership are:
To be eligible for honorary membership, a person should be so outstanding that there can be no question about his/her suitability.
The designation should recognize the contribution of an individual per se, rather than that of an individual representing the accomplishments of many.
The person elected to honorary membership should be of such caliber as to reflect honor upon ALA by this designation.
Honorary membership should be conferred because of a contribution of more than passing interest and of more than local or regional achievement. The contribution may be to librarianship or to a closely related field.
The recipient may be a librarian or a person in a related field.

Honorary Members receive a number of benefits for life, including complimentary ALA and divisional dues, complimentary conference registration at all ALA Midwinter Meetings and Annual Conferences, and listing in the special Honorary Member section on the ALA web site and in the ALA Handbook of Organization.

Members who wish to forward nominations must submit the following information: nominee name; nominee's present position, including title, institution name, address, telephone, fax and e-mail address; a statement of why the person is being nominated, including the ways in which the nominee meets the criteria for selection listed above; at least three letters of recommendation; a resume and/or biographical statement; and other documentation as available and appropriate. Posthumous nominations are not eligible for consideration.

Submit nomination packets to: Honorary Membership, c/o JoAnne Kempf, Executive Board Secretariat, American Library Association, 50 East Huron Street, Chicago, IL 60611.

Additional information about ALA Honorary Membership, plus a complete list of all Honorary Members elected since the designation was first awarded in 1893, may be found at: http://www.ala.org/awards/honorarymembership or by going to http://www.ala.org/ and then clicking on Awards & Scholarships and scrolling down to ALA General / ALA Honorary membership.