Announcing the Informed Peer Recognition Awards

I am thrilled to share with you an initiative that I have been collaborating on recently, the Informed Peer Recognition Award.  

The administrators and moderators of Informed have created the Informed Peer Recognition Award
(IPRA) to give due recognition to those colleagues who contribute to a substantive benefit for their service or community in the UK.

I'd like to ask for your help

We are seeking volunteer judges from all walks of life (that’s you!) to participate in the inaugural award. No special experience or knowledge is required, and colleagues from across the information professions are encouraged to apply to take part in the judging process. It's important to us that we get a good mix of professional experience and knowledge in the judging teams. In particular, we would like to invite participants from the public sector, school, and specialist library areas.

Training and administrative support will be provided to all judges, and more detailed information on the judging process and stages is available here and here (short link: http://bit.ly/2bShwFz and http://bit.ly/2crryy9). FAQs on other elements of the process, including planned timescales, are available on the Informed website here (short link: http://bit.ly/2bEmZPR).

Applications to take part in the judging process can be made via a simple expression of interest sent to nominations@theinformed.org.uk by the 3rd of October, 2016.

So what is this award for, anyway?

IPRA recognises the contributions of a library and information professional working in the UK who has gone beyond the requirements of their job to make a positive difference. Nominations can fall under one of the following three categories;

• For those who have demonstrated a commitment to, or substantial involvement in activities which will contribute to the development of services and/or resources that will provide a benefit to the public.
• For those who have worked to deliver improvements to a service (be it private, public, or voluntary) for the benefit of users and provide them with a better experience when interacting with the service.
• For those who have worked across the profession to improve an aspect of it for the benefit of others.

It might come as a surprise, but the UK currently lacks a mechanism to recognise the hard work of those who don’t belong to expensive and exclusive professional bodies. Information-work, especially when undertaken by extraordinary individuals, affects the lives of us all. I’ve seen many colleagues go above and beyond what is “expected” of them to make improvements to their services. We created IPRA to provide the much needed recognition to these hardworking folks.