Awards and Scholarships

Distinguished Alumni Award

In 1981, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary celebration of the establishment of the School of Library Science of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Anniversary Committee decided to create awards recognizing the achievement of alumni of the School and noting specific scholarly research or service contributions to the profession of librarianship. Since then, following the establishment of a Masters of Information Science Degree, outstanding accomplishments in Information Science are also recognized.

Awards are given to alumni who demonstrate a high degree of professionalism and outstanding service to the UNC School of Information and Library Science or its Alumni Association, and show commitment to librarianship or information science. Alumni are considered for recognition for outstanding professional library or information science achievements at national, state or local levels. A list of previous award winners is available.

Peter McCracken, (MSLS ‘95), co-founder and publisher of ShipIndex.org and co-founder of Serials Solutions, Inc., has been selected as the 2012 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Information and Library Science (SILS) distinguished alumnus. For more information about Peter and why he was selected for the award, please see the news release. The award was presented during the SILS 2012 spring commencement program.

To recommend an alumnus for the Distinguished Alumni Award, please review the nomination guidelines.

Outstanding Service to the School Award

SILSAA recognizes students who provide outstanding service to the School of Information and Library Science. Each spring, the Alumni Association asks the School to select a student who has contributed outstanding service to the School. The student selected receives a monetary award of $50 and a framed certificate. 

This year, members of the School selected a student who has worked steadfastly and seemingly tirelessly to contribute his service to SILS and to the University.

Benito Luciano is well known for not only the quality of his work, but for his technical skills, patience, professionalism and sense of humor. It’s been noted that he consistently looks for ways to expand his knowledge of technology and to provide the best possible service and support to the School.

As an undergraduate, Benito also understands the School’s goal to increase the number of students in the BSIS program. After seeing the need, he stepped up to help achieve that goal by volunteering to work on a video that highlights the undergraduate program.  Using free time out of his very busy personal schedule, he captured footage of alumni, students, faculty and staff . . .  sometimes conducting interviews over weekends and off hours to accommodate schedules.

He not only has captured the needed footage for the video, he is also producing it to help the School grow the BSIS program. As you can easily tell, Benito Luciano is an extraordinary student and deserving of the 2012 Outstanding Service to the School Award. 

Elfreda Chatman Fund Awards

The Elfreda Chatman Research Awards are given to masters' students who demonstrate creative and scholarly vision in their research proposals. The Award was created by the SILS Alumni Association in 2002 to honor Dr. Chatman's interest in original research.

Proposals submitted as part of the Research Methods (INLS 780) course are eligible for this award.

Nominations
Proposals will be nominated by the instructors of INLS 780. Each instructor may nominate a number of proposals equal to the number of sections taught during the award period. It is expected that three sections of INLS 780 will be taught in each of the two award periods: 1) fall term, and 2) spring and summer terms. Thus, it is expected that six proposals will be nominated each year, three in each award period.

The Chair of the Master’s Committee or the Associate Dean will solicit nominations from the relevant instructors. Nominations for the fall term should be solicited in mid-November; nominations for the spring term should be solicited in April; nominations for the summer term should be solicited in August. If possible, the instructor should provide an unmarked copy of the nominated proposal for consideration; if the instructor does not have a copy, it may be requested directly from the student.

The Jury
The jury is made up of two - three SILS full-time faculty members, plus one - two representatives from the SILS Alumni Association. Faculty members who taught INLS 780 during the award period may not serve on the jury. Deliberation and decisions will be made in late December/early January for the fall award and in August for the spring/summer award.

Selection of the Awardee
In judging the submissions, equal emphasis will be placed on each of the following:

• Creativity
• Originality
• Clarity
• Validity of methodology
• Potential significance to the field
 
Presentation of the Award
The financial award for the fall term will be given to the awardee in early January. It will be announced to the SILS community via the SILS-announcements listserv. Official recognition of the awardee will occur during his/her commencement ceremony (usually the following spring).
The financial award for the spring/summer terms will be given to the awardee at the fall orientation for new students.  It will be announced to the SILS community via the SILS-announcements listserv. Official recognition of the awardee will occur during his/her commencement ceremony (usually the following December).

Past Recipients
2012: Courtney Minton
2011: Nic Willcox
2010: Casey Rawson
2009: Adam Mack, Julia Steed
2008: Morgan Stoddard, Erin White
2007: Nicholas Johnson
2006: Monica McCormick, Phil Binkowski
2005:
2004: William Hannah, Jessica Zellers

Background on the Award
Dr. Elfreda A. Chatman taught at SILS for 13 years. She was internationally known for her research on the subject of information-seeking behavior, and is fondly remembered by SILS students.

Chatman, who joined the SILS faculty in 1983, earned her Ph.D. from the University of California-Berkeley. Her dissertation, The Diffusion of Information: A Study of the Working Poor, earned the American Library and Information Science Education (ALISE) Best Dissertation Award in 1984. In 1992, Greenwood Press published her first book entitled The Information World of Retired Women. She was awarded the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) best book award for it in 1995.

A professor at Florida State University's School of Information Studies after leaving Chapel Hill in 1998, Chatman's teaching and research focused on cultural studies of communication, ethnographic studies of information use, information theory and social studies of information. Dr. Chatman passed away in 2002.  In the Spring of 2002, the SILS Alumni Board dedicated this Research Award to her honor.

Official Document Location
These award guidelines will reside in the SILS Bylaws documentation and on the SILS awards Web page.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Elfreda Chatman Book Scholarships

In the Spring of 2002, the SILS Alumni Board dedicated the book scholarship fund to honor Dr. Elfreda Chatman. Since 2002, the Elfreda Chatman Book and Research Fund has supported book scholarships awarded annually at the New Student Reception in the fall.

Congratulations to winners of the 2012 book scholarships, from left to right, Master's students Kate Gardner and Bendte Fagge. Their names were drawn from attendees of the Welcome Reception hosted by the SILS Alumni Association on Monday, Aug. 20, 2012.

Jill Sexton, SILSAA president, holds the basket of names as treasurer Christine Stachowicz draws the names for the book scholarships.