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.
For a link to the nomination form and deadline information, please see the main TDL Awards page.
AWARD CRITERIA
Outstanding contributions may include, but are not limited to:
- Innovative uses of technology resources
- Digitization projects
- Oral histories
- Increasing accessibility to diverse collections
- Capturing the experiences of historically marginalized communities
- Effective working relationships regarding digital presences or projects and involving other people, departments, or organizations
- Metadata and cataloging processes
- Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETD) programs
- Integration of digital collections into Information Literacy campaigns, outreach and publicity, curriculum guides, or other flexible and innovative uses of digital resources.
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.
To nominate an individual for TDL’s Trailblazer Award, you will need:
- Contact information about the nominee to include their name, affiliation, email address, 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.)
- Agree to TCDL’s Code of Conduct
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 THE TDL
Texas Digital Library is a library consortium that provides services to its member institutions that enable free and open access to scholarship, cultural heritage materials, and educational resources. These services are built in a shared, open infrastructure and sustained by a collaborative community of library and archives workers. Learn more about TDL membership by visiting https://main.tdl.org/members/membership/ or email us at info@tdl.org.