Chicago/Santa Barbara, Calif.--The History Section of the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) and ABC-CLIO announce a new ABC-CLIO Online History Award, which will be the first American Library Association (ALA) award of its kind to acknowledge the importance of Internet-based historical resources. The History Section and ABC-CLIO, a publisher of reference materials in the field of history, seek to encourage the development of freely available, sustainable online history resources with this award by singling out innovative projects and the individuals who create them. RUSA will present the award at the 2005 ALA Annual Conference in Chicago.

The award, which consists of a citation and $3,000 donated by ABC-CLIO, is given to encourage, recognize and commend professional achievement in historical reference and research librarianship. This award will be offered every other year beginning in 2005.

"This new award signifies a logical partnership between ALA’s section for history librarians and the company that has done more than any other to foster history librarianship," said Jim Niessen, award committee chair. "Technology is helping researchers gain access to distant resources, but the ingenuity of librarians is key to bringing them together."

"We’re very pleased to be working with the History Section of RUSA to sponsor this important new award," said Ron Boehm, CEO of ABC-CLIO. "For fifty years, history has been our only focus, our pride and our passion. Helping to recognize the achievements of others in the field is a natural extension of our mission."

More information on this award is available at the RUSA awards web page
(http://www.ala.org/RUSATemplate.cfm?Section=rusaawards).

The Reference and User Services Association, a division of the American Library Association (http://www.ala.org/), is the foremost organization of reference and information professionals who make the connections between people and the information sources, services, and collection materials they need. ALA, founded in 1876 with headquarters in Chicago, is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with more than 64,000 members. Its mission is to promote the highest quality library and information services and public access to information.

Established in 1955, ABC-CLIO (www.abc-clio.com) is a privately held corporation with an international reputation for high quality and innovation. The company is headquartered in Santa Barbara, California, with offices in Denver, Colorado and Oxford, England. As an educational reference publisher, ABC-CLIO has received critical acclaim for its abstracting and indexing services, award-winning book program, and cutting-edge online products.