Library Juice Press Annual Paper Contest
The intention of this contest is to encourage and reward good work in the field of library and information studies, humanistically understood, through a monetary award and public recognition.
The contest is open to librarians, library students, academics, and others.
Acceptable paper topics cover the full range of topics in the field of library and information studies, loosely defined.
Papers submitted may be pending publication or published (formally or informally) in the past year. Unpublished papers are acceptable if they are publicly accessible (informally published) and written in the past year.
Single and multiple-authored papers will be accepted.
Any type of paper may be entered as long as it is not a report of an empirical study. Examples of accepted forms would be literature review essays, analytical essays, historical research, and personal essays. The work may include some informal primary research, but may not be essentially a report of a study.
Submitted papers may be part of a larger project.
The minimum length is 2000 words. The maximum length is 10,000 words.
Criteria for judgment:
- Clarity of writing
- Originality of thought
- Sincerity of effort at reaching something true
- Soundness of argumentation (where applicable)
- Relevance to our time and situation
The award shall consist of $1000 and a certificate suitable for framing.
Entries must be submitted by August 1st, to inquiries@libraryjuicepress.com.
The winning paper, and possibly a number of honorable mentions, are announced on October 1st.
Papers will be judged by a committee selected for their accomplishments in the field.
Although we are a publisher, submission of a paper for this award in itself does not imply any transfer, licensing, or sharing of your publication rights.
Past winners
2023 – Bill Crowley, for “Allies, Cobelligerents, and the Political Realities of Pursuing Social Justice Librarianship in Conservative Republican Communities,” published in Library Philosophy and Practice, 2023. [press release]
2022 – No award
2021 – No award
2020 – Jeanie Austin & Melissa Villa-Nicholas, for “Information Provision and the Carceral State: Race and Reference beyond the Idea of the ‘Underserved,’” published in the journal The Reference Librarian in 2019. [press release]
2019 – Karen Nicholson, for “On the Space/Time of Information Literacy, Higher Education, and the Global Knowledge Economy,” published in the Journal of Critical Library and Information Studies in 2019. [press release]
2018 – Gracen Brilmyer, for “Archival assemblages: applying disability studies’ political/relational model to archival description,” published in Archival Science in 2018. [Press release]
2017 – David James Hudson, for “On ‘Diversity’ as Anti-Racism in Library and Information Studies: A Critique,” published in the Journal of Critical Library and Information Studies in 2017. [Press release]
2016 – Lisa Sloniowski, for “Affective Labor, Resistance, and the Academic Librarian,” published in Library Trends in 2016. [Press release]
2015 – James Lowry, for “Information and the Social Contract,” unpublished at the time of award. [Press release]
2014 – Michelle Caswell, for “Inventing New Archival Imaginaries: Theoretical Foundations for Identity-Based Community Archives,” published as a chapter in Identity Palimpsests: Archiving Ethnicity in the United States and Canada, Litwin Books, 2014. [Press release]
2013 – Ryan Shaw, for “Information Organization and the Philosophy of History,” published in JASIST in June 2013. [Press release]