C. Herbert Finch Online Publication Award

Members of the Finding Aids Award Committee shall also be responsible for awarding the C. Herbert Finch Award honoring online publications.

The C. Herbert Finch Online Publication Award was established to honor the memory of C. Herbert Finch, former Assistant Director of Cornell University Libraries, who died on April 27, 2005.

Submission Guidelines for the C. Herbert Finch Award

The Finding Aids Award Committee will award a prize honoring online publications, including digital exhibitions, LibGuides, web sites and web pages devoted to the promotion and use of archival materials, created by individuals or institutions in the MARAC region.

The Finding Aids Award Committee will accept submissions or nominations for the C. Herbert Finch Award. (Note: An online publication that is primarily a finding aid is not eligible for the Finch Award but may be nominated for the Finding Aids Award. An article (e.g. blog post, journal article, newsletter, etc.) is also not eligible.)

Eligibility

To be eligible for the award, an online publication must have a stable internet address and must have been published within the last year (between July 1 and June 30).

Eligible submissions include, but are not limited to: 

  • Digital exhibitions
  • LibGuides
  • Research guides
  • Collection(s) portals
  • Digital archives

Ineligible submissions include, but are not limited to:

  • Blog posts
  • Journal articles
  • Newsletters

Evaluation

The Committee encourages the submission of entries that use a variety of media. Submissions are judged on content, navigability, usability, functionality, and site design.

Award

One award will be given with a maximum value of $250.00. Award to be announced annually at the fall business meeting.

Submission of entries

Submissions must be received by July 31 of the year in which the award is to be given.

Submissions should be sent via e-mail to the Senior Co-Chair of the Finding Aids Award Committee.  It should include the URL for each submission with a letter of nomination.

Submissions must be received by July 31, 2024.  

Please send URLs for each submission with a letter of nomination to the 2024-2025 Senior Co-Chair of the Finding Aids Award Committee, David Grinnell at [email protected].


Award Winners

2023
University of Pittsburgh Library System
website: August Wilson Archive

2022
Special Collections in Performing Arts at University of Maryland
online exhibit: "Persistent Vision: The D.C. Punk Collections at the University of Maryland" 

2021
The Rosenbach
online exhibit: “I am an American!”: The Authorship and Activism of Alice Dunbar-Nelson

2020
Karen Chittenden, Elizabeth Lindqwister, and Micah Messenheimer
Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress
story map: "Susie King Taylor: An African American Nurse and Teacher in the Civil War"

University of Virginia Arthur J. Morris Law Library
online exhibit: "Marshaling May Days: UVA Law and the 1970 Student Anti-War Movement"

2019
The Museum of Modern Art
microsite:  "MoMA Through Time: An incomplete history of MoMA and MoMA PS1, as told through objects in the archives."

2018
Rochester Public Library 
website: RochesterVoices

2017
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
online exhibit: "The Lillian Thomas Pratt Archives and Faberge at VMFA"

2016
AFS Intercultural Programs
online curriculum: “The Volunteers: Americans Join World War I, 1914-1919

2015
Charles Hardy III, West Chester University, and Janneken Smucker, West Chester University
online exhibit: "Goin’ North: Stories from the First Great Migration to Philadelphia"

2014
Trevor Owens, Library of Congress
online exhibit: "Finding Our Place in the Cosmos"

2013
National Historical Publications and Records Commission
online exhibit: "Founders Online"

2012
Virginia Historical Society
database: "Unknown No Longer: A Database of Virginia Slave Names"

2011
Butler Library, Columbia University
online exhibit: "1968: Columbia in Crisis"

2010
Chester County Archives, Chester County, PA
online exhibit: "Researching Your Chester County Home"

2009
Newport News Public Library
online exhibit: "The Old Dominion Land Company and the Development of the City of Newport News"

2008
The National Library of Medicine
online exhibit: "Profiles in Science: The Mary Lasker Papers"

2007
Jessica Tanny, University Archives, State University of New York at Buffalo
online exhibit: "Samuel P. Capen: University Man"

2006
University of Virginia
online exhibit: "Patients' Voices in Early 19th Century Virginia: Letters to Doct. James Carmichael & Son"