Oboler Award Committee

Term begins at the close of Annual Conference or July 1

Welcome new officers and committee members

Review goals and calendar with committee members

Publicize a request for award nominations 

• Draft a press release for OIF staff to post on ALA news page (previous Oboler News) 

• Post request to multiple groups 

• Create social media graphics and text for IFRT and OIF

• Speak at web meetings with a verbal request for nominations and to highlight past award winners

• Submit a brief piece for the IFRT Newsletter

Respond to each nominator, thanking them for their time and submission and outlining the committee's process and giving them an estimate of when they would expect an announcement.

Committee may meet in person at ALA's midwinter meeting to discuss the nominations

Communicate process of review and evaluation with committee members

Review nominations 

Committee will discuss the nominations virtually

Committee chair assigns a nomination to a committee member

Committee members research background information and references provided in the nomination

Committee members submit a report of 2-3 paragraphs based on their findings, or additional information the committee should be aware of before making a final decision.

Post the nomination report in the committee library

• Summarizing the nominee's accomplishments briefly with the nominee's name listed.

• Make a reference check of the references listed on the nomination and find out any more information you can from the references about the nominee to verify and possibly discover additional facts that assist with the nominee's narrative and contributions. 

• Additionally research online what you can about the nominee's accomplishments to verify what you can, or fill in any missing holes as you see fit in order to fairly rank their achievements.

• Based on your research and interviews, and the supporting documents, please then rate the nominee, as Strongly Recommend, Recommend or Do Not Recommend for the Immroth award based on your findings and personal opinion of the candidate's achievements.

• Include your own name in the written report as the compiler.

Committee chair will notify the award recipient, the recipient's nominator, and anyone else who submitted a nomination.

Committee will draft a press release about the award recipient and submit it to OIF for distribution (previous Oboler News) 

• Announcement is also posted in the IFRT newsletter

Committee will draft copy and graphics to promote the award recipient on social media and submit to OIF and the Communications and Publication Committee 

Committee will write a column about the year's activities for the IFRT Report and submit to the chair of the Communications and Publication Committee by their deadline

Committee chair will formally invite the award recipient to the awards reception and make any necessary arrangements 

• notify recipients and their nominators and/or guests so they can make arrangements to attend ALA conference or have someone attend in their place

Committee chair will coordinate the plaque order and the check request with OIF staff liaisons

Committee chair will act as host to the award recipient during IFRT award reception and at any other IFRT events or meetings the winner attends. 

Committee chair will give a brief speech about the award recipient, thank the committee for their work, and present the plaque and award check to the recipient at the IFRT awards reception at ALA's Annual Conference. 

Committee chair will offer to ship the plaque to the recipient and coordinate with OIF staff liaisons