OLA Archival and Preservation Achievement Award
Criteria/Eligibility
- The recipient will be a member/member institution in good standing of OLA.
- Nominations will be evaluated according to the following criteria:
METHODOLOGY
Contributions to the development, application or utilization of new or improved methods, techniques and routines.
LEADERSHIP
Leadership in either an organization or a significant archival or preservation project.
RESEARCH
Evidence of studies, research, or contribution to professional literature.
PARTNERSHIP
Partnerships and strategic alliances with industry, the community and/or other institutions.
MENTORING
Training and professional mentoring in the field of archives and/or preservation.
Nomination Procedure
- Nominators must be a member in good standing of OLA.
- The nomination form can be completed by visiting: https://accessola.com/membership
information/awards/ - Nominations will be accepted between: September – November.
- The closing date for nominations in any given year is: 15 November.
- Presentations can use visuals that are in slide format, or other forms of
creative expressions.Once the winner has been chosen, the OLA President or designate will contact the
successful nominator.
o The OLA office will contact all unsuccessful nominators. - Unless otherwise arranged, the OLA President or designate will also contact the successful
nominee and request a photo for promotion purposes.
o The OLA office will later connect with the nominator and the winner for award
presentation logistics. - If desired, nominators may be involved in the award presentation such as creating and/or writing the presentation speech. Please indicate your interest to do so in the nomination form.
Selection Process
- The process for this award is stewarded by the OLA Awards Committee, which is a
subcommittee of the OLA Board of Directors. - The presentation of the award is at the discretion of the OLA Board and is not necessarily
presented on an annual basis. - The OLA Awards Committee will review all of the applications and assess candidates’
eligibility. - Eligible applications will be assessed according to the criteria as above and any supporting the
documentation. - The OLA Awards Committee will present all qualified candidates to the OLA Board for consideration. The Board will consider all potential candidates, including those nominated from the membership.
Award Presentation Information
- The winner will be notified in advance of the award presentation.
- This award is presented at the OLA annual Super Conference.
- The recipient will prepare a short acceptance speech.
- Guests of award winners are welcome to attend the award presentation, however, they must be registered conference attendees or registered guests. All attendees must have a conference badge to be onsite. Further information will be provided to the recipient.
Past Recipients
2025 Leeds & the Thousand Islands Archives, Leeds & the Thousand Islands PL
2024 Archives and Speical Collections (ARCS) on behalf of the Women’s Archives Initiative, University of Ottawa
2022 Huron Country Public Library, Huron County Digitized Newspapers Project
2020 Local History Room, Oshawa Public Libraries
2019 Ardis Proulx-Chedore, Cochrane Public Library
2018 David Sharron, Brock University
2017 VITA Toolkit, Our Digital World
2016 Not awarded
2015 Not awarded
2014 Sharon Bently, Deputy Chief Librarian, King Township Public Library
2013 Whitby Public Library Archive Digitization Project
2012 Brantford Public Library, for Local History Digital Archives Database Project
2011 Barbara Sweet & Krista Richardson, Prince Edward County Public Library
2010 Not awarded
2009 Linda Burtch, Archives, Sault Ste. Marie Public Library
2008 Not awarded
2007 Not awarded
2006 Mississauga Library System for its Historic Images Gallery
