Professional Development Award

Description

The Professional Development Award is intended to provide an opportunity for librarians and information specialists to pursue a continuing education/professional development opportunity in the area of health sciences librarianship. Continuing education opportunities may include: registration fees for courses, programs, workshops, and conferences sponsored by UNYOC, professional organizations, and regional library councils, graduate schools of library/information science or colleges and universities. Hotel and travel expenses for a continuing education opportunity also qualify for the award.

The amount of the award is 500.00 USD. Two such awards will be given per application period. 

Eligibility

The applicant must be a current member of UNYOC who is in good standing and has paid membership dues for the year of the award date.

The award monies will be distributed to individuals who demonstrate the need for continuing education opportunities to further his/her professional growth and to realize institutional goals.

Furthermore, those who receive the Professional Development Award agree to attend the continuing education opportunity or professional development program within 12 months of the date of receipt. After attending the program, awardees agree to write a post for the UNYOC blog describing their experience including the impact this has had on them personally and/or their organization.

The blog posting, which ideally includes a photo, will be submitted to the Awards Chair (Amanda Ross-White) no later than two months after completion of the program/opportunity. The blog post must be submitted before the awardee is eligible for reimbursement.

Note that awardees from the previous year are ineligible to apply. This will allow for more members to receive an award.

Criteria

Applications will be scored by the Awards Committee using a rubric. The maximum score is 10 points. The application must include:

1. A current curriculum vitae or resume, which includes an address for the treasurer to send reimbursement if the applicant is successful (max. 2 points)

2. A published description of the continuing education/professional development opportunity (max. 1 point)

3. A personal statement (not to exceed 250 words) indicating how this opportunity will further the applicant’s own professional goals and/or how it will help the applicant to realize institutional or organizational goals (max. 6 points)

An additional max. 1 point can be given for a complete, professional application.

All application materials are to be emailed to Amanda Ross-White as one PDF attachment with the subject line “Professional Development Award Application.”

Important Dates