CALL Grants and Chapter Awards Committee 2019-2020 Annual Report

Committee members: Joe Mitzenmacher (chair), Sally Baker, Debra Denslaw, Shari Duff, Lyonette Louis-Jacques, and Leslie Strauss.

This year’s Grants and Chapter Awards Committee was charged with selecting grant recipients based on established criteria for CALL members to attend professional meetings and selecting recipients for the chapter awards based on nominations from CALL colleagues.Gran

Grant Activities

The Committee met in early September by conference call to plan out the year. It was decided that we would continue the efforts of previous Grants and Chapter Awards Committees by seeking out professional development opportunities besides AALL and encouraging CALL members to apply for grants to attend these programs, through both periodic reminders on the CALL listserv and by making announcements at CALL Business Meetings.

The Committee agreed that we would meet as needed to consider grant applications that were submitted and award grant money based on the criteria listed on the CALL Web site. However, due to hesitation to apply for grants to attend spring and summer programs such as AALL and CALI because of the growing threat from the coronavirus pandemic, the Committee decided (with Board approval) to extend the deadline for grant applications from March 31 to April 30. The ensuing cancellation of all spring and summer in-person conferences meant that we did not receive any applications for grants to attend these programs. Therefore, our Committee only awarded one CALL grant during the 2019-2020 year:

  • Grant to attend IALL to Jean Wenger

During the May CALL Board meeting it was decided that the unused portion of the budgeted money for grants for 2019-2020 would be rolled over into the 2020-2021 grants budget.

Chapter Awards Activities

In February, the Committee started seeking nominations for the chapter awards via a post to the CALL listserv and by an announcement during the February Business Meeting. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the nomination deadline was extended to April 30 to match the extended deadline for grant applications. The Committee received nominations for each of the chapter awards and then reviewed all of the nominations. The following recipients were selected based on the criteria listed on the CALL Web site:

  • Lifetime Achievement in Law Librarianship Award: Kathleen Powers Goodridge
  • Agnes and Harvey Reid Award for Outstanding Contribution to Law Librarianship: Clare Gaynor Willis and Diana Koppang
  • Award for Outstanding In-House Publication: Jesse Bowman

Chapter awards are usually distributed during the May CALL Business Meeting. However, because the May Business Meeting was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, it was decided that we would instead distribute the 2019-2020 chapter awards during the first Business Meeting of the 2020-2021 CALL year in September.