OCULA Award for Special Achievement - Ontario Library Association

The OCULA Award for Special Achievement honours exceptional achievement(s) in an academic library setting

Award nomination should identify exceptional achievement(s) in at least one of the following areas:

Service to library committees, associations or organizations that demonstrates great impact, collaboration, and mentorship.
Research and publication in areas of academic librarianship, especially research projects that show innovation, impact, and have been disseminated widely
Planning and implementing a library program (e.g. innovative approaches to teaching, reference services, or community engagement) which demonstrates impact, collaboration, and longevity

Nominations will be accepted between: February – November
The nominator must be a member in good standing of OLA
Nominator should specify which area of Service, Research or Planning the person or group has contributed to in the application.
The nominator must provide sufficient documented evidence of the nominee’s contribution, including:

- - One letter of support from the nominator
  - Up to two letters from the nominee’s colleagues supporting the nomination that provide specific examples of the nominee’s achievement(s).
  - Colleagues knowledgeable about the nominee’s work should be chosen to write the letters of support.
The selection committee will evaluate the nomination using this Rubric
All OLA Awards follow the OLA Awards Procedure

The selection committee consists of the OCULA awards committee who are members of OCULA council
Eligible applications will be assessed according to the criteria above and any supporting documentation.

Past Recipients

2026 not awarded

2025 Yanli Li, Wilfrid Laurier University

2024 The Indian Residential School Survivors’ Storybase Team, University of Toronto Libraries

2023 Mark Swartz, Queens University

2022 Not awarded

2021 Not awarded

2020 Not awarded

2019 Not awarded

2018 The Learning Portal, College Libraries Ontario with the support of Ontario Colleges Library Service

2017 La Casita Azul, York University Libraries Student2Scholar, Western University, Queen’s University, University of Toronto

2016 Colin S. Clarke MISt, Director, Canadian Centre for Epigraphic Documents, Le centre canadien des document épigraphiques

2015 Not awarded

2014 HLLR (Head Libraries & Learning Resources) Copyright Literacy in Ontario Colleges SPARK – Student Papers and Academic Research Kit

2013 Not awarded

2012 Robin Bergart & M.J. D’Elia University of Guelph for Innovation Boot Camp

2011 Not awarded

2010 Project Conifer (represented by Dan Scott, Project Manager), Ontario consortium of libraries using Evergreen open source software