The MIRIAM BRAVERMAN MEMORIAL PRIZE, a presentation of the Progressive Librarians Guild (PLG), is awarded each year for the best paper about some aspect of the social responsibilities of librarians, libraries, or librarianship. Papers related to archivists, archives, and archival work are also eligible.

The winning paper will be published in the Summer 2014 issue of Progressive Librarian. The winner of the contest will also receive a $500 stipend to help offset the cost of travel to and from the 2014 American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference in Las Vegas, NV from June 26 – July1. The award will be presented at the annual PLG dinner at ALA. In addition, the winner will be provided a press pass for the conference, allowing for free entry to sessions and the exhibition floor, with the expectation that they will write a short reflection regarding the conference for publication by PLG.

Think you might be interested? Here’s the fine print.
1. Contestants must be Library and/or Information Science students attending a graduatelevel program in the United States or Canada. Contestants may not have finished their coursework earlier than December 2013.
2. Entries must be the original, unpublished work of the contestant, and must be written in English. Entries may not exceed 3,000 words and must conform to MLA intext citation style.
3. To facilitate the blind review process, each entry must include a cover sheet providing the contestant’s name, full contact information (address, phone number, email address), name of the institution where the contestant is enrolled, and the title of the paper. No identifying information other than the title should appear on the paper itself.
4. Entries must be submitted electronically, in Microsoft Word or RTF format, to bravermansubmissions@gmail.com. Entries must be received no later than 5:00 p.m. CST on International Workers’ Day or May Day, Thursday, May 1, 2014.
5. The $500 stipend is available only to help defray the cost of ALA conference attendance in 2013; if the winner of the contest is unable to attend, the money will remain in the Braverman Prize endowment fund. The winner will still be offered publication in Progressive Librarian.

Any questions regarding the contest or the selection process can be directed to the chairs of the selection committee, Megan Browndorf at margaret.a.browndorf@gmail.com or Kelly McElroy at kellymce@gmail.com. More information about Miriam Braverman and about the Progressive
Librarians Guild, including winning papers from previous years, is available at http://progressivelibrariansguild.org/content/award.shtml.