ABOUT THE TDL AWARDS
Each year, the TDL Awards honor Texas-based individuals and groups that have made outstanding contributions to the advancement of digital libraries. Digital libraries are defined broadly as access to digital collections from allied organizations such as museums, archives, historical societies, and other cultural heritage institutions.
Nominees may serve in any position within their organization. Anyone who contributes to digital scholarship or the preservation, management, or access of digital content is eligible for these awards. An affiliation with a TDL member institution is not a requirement for either award nominees or nominators. Self-nominations are accepted and encouraged. Learn more about past award winners.
Nomination Deadline is February 10, 2025. One winner from each award category will receive free registration to the Texas Conference on Digital Libraries.
Texas Digital Library and the TCDL Awards Subcommittee encourages submissions from all historically underrepresented communities and their allies, including but not limited to the presence and contributions of all persons regardless of age, culture, abilities, bodies, ethnic origin, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital status, nationality, race, religion, or socioeconomic status.
Use this document to prepare your nomination.
If you have a question or suggestion, please contact TDL at info@tdl.org. Find more conference updates here.
NOMINATIONS for 2025 TDL AWARDS
Nominees may serve in any position within their organization. Anyone who contributes to digital scholarship or the preservation, management, or access of digital content is eligible for these awards. An affiliation with a TDL member institution is not a requirement for either award nominees or nominators. Self-nominations are accepted and encouraged. There is no limit to how many nominations you submit. You may also submit nominations for multiple award categories. Nominees (or at least one nominee for group applications) must be based in a Texas institution or have completed a Texas-based project.
The TDL Awards Committee encourages submissions from historically excluded communities and their allies, including but not limited to the presence and contributions of all persons regardless of age, culture, abilities, bodies, ethnic origin, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital status, nationality, race, religion, or socioeconomic status.
These awards recognize excellence in the following areas:
- Excellence – The Excellence Award honors a specific project that demonstrates overall excellence in one or more areas of digital curation or digital scholarship practice.
- Individual Impact – The Individual Impact Award honors an individual who has made significant contributions and improvements related to the field of digital curation and digital scholarship.
- Outreach – The Outreach Award honors an individual or team that demonstrates a creative, innovative, and successful approach to increasing accessibility of digital information, promoting engagement among new users, or increasing public awareness of an organization’s digital collections.
- Scholarly Communication Impact – The Scholarly Communication Impact Award honors an individual or group that has demonstrated leadership in or advancement of scholarly communication.
- Student Excellence – The Student Excellence Award honors an individual student who has demonstrated overall excellence and significant contributions to digital library practice.
- Trailblazer – The Trailblazer Award honors the work of an individual or group who has used limited resources in innovative ways to create, maintain, or support digital collections. TDL strongly encourages applications from libraries, archives, and cultural heritage institutions that may not have full-time staff dedicated to digital projects but that have found creative and innovative ways to develop a digital presence.
NOMINATION REQUIREMENTS
To nominate an institution, project, group, or individual for one of the awards listed above, please complete the form linked below. To do so, you will need:
- Contact information for the nominee or nominated group to include names, email addresses, and mailing address (required), plus any URLs (optional)
- Your contact information (required)
- A justification statement (required)
- Supporting documentation/file uploads (optional; examples include but are not limited to letters of recommendation, workflows, awards received, publicity and publications, etc.)
Please note that only Texas-based individuals are eligible for TDL awards.
Use this document to prepare your nomination.
WINNERS
Winning nominations are selected by the TDL Awards Committee, and winners are notified in early spring. The TDL Awards Subcommittee reserves the right to amend the nominated award category as needed after reviewing all submissions. One winner from each award category will receive complimentary registration for the Texas Conference on Digital Libraries (TCDL), and all award winners are honored during a special awards session at the conference. A description of the winning awards will be posted on the TDL website following the conference.
Award winners are encouraged to attend TCDL, but it is not required.
Both winners and nominees will be invited to share their work with the digital library community through blog posts, webinars, and/or TDL member forums.
For questions about the criteria or processes for awards selection, please email info@tdl.org.
Click here to view past TDL Award winners.
ABOUT THE TEXAS CONFERENCE ON DIGITAL LIBRARIES
Since 2007, the Texas Digital Library has hosted the annual Texas Conference on Digital Libraries (TCDL). TCDL covers topics relevant to the creation, promotion, dissemination, and preservation of research, scholarship, and cultural heritage digital materials. The goal of TCDL is to bring together those working on digital projects — including outreach librarians, repository managers, catalogers, faculty members, technical staff, and others — in order to build a practical, usable, and sustainable model for digital libraries.
TCDL encourages and welcomes participation from students, scholars, librarians, researchers, faculty, and users from all backgrounds, identities, and experiences. All are welcome!
Read TCDL’s Code of Conduct.
ABOUT TEXAS DIGITAL LIBRARY
Texas Digital Library is a consortium of library and archives professionals that propels the Academy forward by maintaining our past and preparing for the future. Membership in TDL is open to any academic library. Find out more by visiting https://main.tdl.org/members/membership/ or email us at info@tdl.org.