FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Winner of ABC-CLIO Online History Award Announced
SANTA BARBARA, CA—July 2007— Faith Jones of the New York Public Library has been awarded the ABC-CLIO Online History Award for the design and creation of the Yizkor Books Project.
The Yizkor Books Project offers access to a collection of more than 600 digitized, privately printed Holocaust memorial books owned by the library that offer a rich source of information about Jewish families and communities in eastern Europe prior to World War II. Contemporary families of holocaust victims, genealogists, and historians of the prewar decades can use the Yizkor Books website to quickly locate books on known communities of interest.
The ABC-CLIO Online History Award committee, consisting of three librarians and a representative of ABC-CLIO, received 38 nominations representing a variety of historical websites from the United States, Europe and Latin America. So many high-quality websites were submitted that the committee chose to award a single winner and three honorable mentions. These websites illustrate the breadth of creative work that provides access to historical research materials for a wide audience of current and potential users.
The award of $3,000 is offered biennially to developers of freely-available and sustainable online history resources that are useful and innovative. The award is administered by the History Section of the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) of the American Library Association. It is the first American Library Association (ALA) award of its kind to acknowledge the importance of Internet-based historical resources.
The award was presented to Ms. Jones during the RUSA awards ceremony and reception on Monday, June 25, during the ALA Annual conference in Washington, DC.
"This is a very important project, not only for scholars and historians, but for anyone interested in Jewish culture and the Holocaust," said Ron Boehm, CEO of ABC-CLIO. "The Online History Award was created specifically to acknowledge and reward this type of project, and we are proud to support Faith Jones' efforts to digitize Yizker Books."
Honorable mentions were given to the Bethlehem Digital History Project, Densho: The Japanese American Legacy Project, and the Giza Archives Project.
About ABC-CLIO
Celebrating 50 years of reference publishing in 2005, ABC-CLIO is a privately held company founded and owned by the Boehm family. The company's corporate headquarters is in Santa Barbara, CA, with offices in Denver, CO, and Oxford, England. Committed to serving the history profession, history teachers, and students and scholars of history, ABC-CLIO annually publishes approximately 80 encyclopedias, guides, and handbooks, in both print and electronic formats. Since 1991, this acclaimed reference book line has won over 60 best-reference awards from the American Library Association and Library Journal. ABC-CLIO also publishes a variety of online subscription databases that function as both reference and curriculum resources.
About the History Section of the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA)
RUSA's History Section represents the subject interests of reference librarians, archivists, bibliographers, genealogists, historians, and others engaged in historical reference or research. It brings together representatives of history collections in all formats from all types of libraries, archives, and historical societies. History was the first section established within RUSA and is the only group within the American Library Association devoted to the discipline of history. Reflecting the Section's broad representation, its objectives are to identify common problems and to recommend solutions that can enhance service to users. Through its programs, committees, and projects, the Section helps to improve the materials and methods for historical reference and research services.