The MELA Book Award Committee (BAC) is charged by the MELA Executive Board (EB) to choose one or more outstanding work(s) related to Middle East studies librarianship, the history of Middle East libraries/scholarship, or other topics congruent with the mission of MELA, for special recognition at the annual MELA meeting & in MELA Notes.
Responsibilities:
- The BAC will consider titles published within the last three years for their contributions as lasting works related to the field of Middle East librarianship.
- The BAC will solicit nominations for prospective titles from the MELA membership 90 days from the date of the MELA meeting.
- The BAC will also rely on its own expertise to nominate titles in addition to any that may be nominated by the MELA membership.
- Authors may not self-nominate.
- The BAC will decide on awardee(s) 30 days in advance of the annual MELA Business Meeting and will notify the EB.
- The BAC will prepare a brief citation supporting the awardee(s) to be read in the committee reports at the MELA Business Meeting.
- The MELA President is responsible for sharing this citation in time for it to be announced as part of the MESA annual meeting.
Notification:
- The awardee(s) will receive a suitable certificate from MELA
- The announcement will be published in MELA Notes
- The announcement will be shared with the awardee(‘s/s’) publisher(s)
Makeup and terms of office:
- Committee members are appointed by the EB
- The book-review editor of MELA Notes is a standing member
- Two additional committee members will serve no more than three years. Any MELA member in good standing is eligible to serve on this committee.
For 2022, the appointed members are:
- Rustin Zarkar (Chair, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill)
- Farshad Sonboldel (UC Santa Barbara)
- Rayan Zohar (Middle East Institute, Washington DC)
Finalized by the Executive Board on July 28th, 2021.
RLD, MELA President 2021.