Update to VLA Awards

This year the VLA Executive Committee voted to change the names of two of the Association’s awards, both previously named after historical Virginians. The Cardinal Cup (nee Jefferson Cup) continues to honor a distinguished biography, historical fiction, or American history book for young people. Renaming the cup after our state bird empowers VLA to engage broadly with history while still remaining true to our Commonwealth identity. The Advocacy Award (nee George Mason Award) honors individuals, libraries, or other organizations distinguished for advocacy of libraries and/or information access. This name change clarifies the purpose of the award for both nominators and award winners.

The Executive Committee identified all awards named after individuals, and selected these two for renaming. While Jefferson and Mason were both foundational figures in the early history of the Commonwealth and the country, neither has a specific link to the Virginia Library Association. In addition, both have complex biographies that are exclusionary to a growing portion of our membership. We chose to retain Donna G. Cote’s name for the Librarian of the Year Award, in recognition of her long and dedicated service to Virginia public libraries; and the Clara M. Stanley Scholarship will remain in honor of Ms. Stanley, who served on the VLA Professional Associates Board for more than a decade.

Many thanks to the dedicated members of our award and scholarship committees and juries, the Executive Committee, and the VLA Council for their careful consideration of and input into award names. The committees and juries do excellent work recruiting and evaluating award nominations every year. Congratulations to our 2022 award winners, and we look forward to seeing nominations for 2023.

Thank you, Prof. K.T. L. Vaughan, MSLS, EdD, 2022 VLA President

(Please give us grace over the next couple of months as we update the VLA website, forms, and other details.)

-September 28, 2022