OCULA Lifetime Achievement Award

This award recognizes an individual working in libraries in Ontario who has made an outstanding contribution to academic or research library development. The award honours exceptional achievements by librarians, library technicians, or other library staff from college or university libraries.

Criteria/Eligibility

To qualify, nominees must have shown exceptional contributions to the profession in one or more of the following areas:

Service to library committees, associations or organizations;
Research and publication in areas of academic librarianship;
Planning and implementing a library program which serves as a model to others.
Service as a role model or mentor to others

Nominees do not have to be members of OLA or OCULA to be eligible for this award. Normally, this award goes to late-career individuals, however, we welcome nominations of mid-career individuals as well.

Nomination Procedure

The nominator must be a member in good standing of OLA. We welcome self-nominations.
The nomination form can be completed by visiting the OLA Awards website: https://accessola.com/membership-information/awards/
The nominator must provide sufficient documented evidence of the nominee’s contribution, including:
- Candidate CV
- One letter of support from the nominator, with up to 2 additional letters supporting the nomination that provide specific examples of the nominee’s contributions. The letters can be from direct reports, faculty, students, supervisors, or anyone who can speak to their contributions. The letters as a whole should cover one or more of the four criteria that will be evaluated:
  ○ Service to library committees, associations or organizations;
  ○ Research and publication in areas of academic librarianship;
  ○ Planning and implementing a library program which serves as a model
  to others
  ○ Served as a role model / mentor to others
  o In addition to these criteria, the Committee will look for evidence of leadership in the profession, and will also consider the completeness of the nomination package. Colleagues knowledgeable about the nominee’s work should be chosen to write the letters of support. Please also consult this selection rubric for a full understanding of how the nomination package will be evaluated.
Nominations will be accepted between September – November.
Once the winner has been chosen, the OCULA Past President will contact the successful nominator. The OLA office will contact all unsuccessful nominators.

Selection Process

The selection committee consists of a past award recipient, one OCULA councillor, and an OCULA past president (Chair). The committee makes decisions based solely on the content of the nomination package and does not review additional materials or websites.
Eligible applications will be assessed according to the criteria as above.
The OCULA Awards Committee will present all qualified candidates to the OCULA Council and their recommendation for the award winner. Council will vote to approve or reject the Awards Committee recommendation.
Nominations are active for 2 years. If a nomination is unsuccessful in the first year that it is submitted, it will be held for the next year to be reconsidered. Nominators will be asked to update information submitted.
The presentation of the award is at the discretion of OCULA Council and is not necessarily presented on an annual basis.

Award Presentation Information

This award is presented at the OLA annual Super Conference.
The winner will be notified in advance of the award presentation.
Guests of award winners are welcome to attend the award presentation, however, they must be registered conference attendees or registered guests.