Library History Essay Award 2025

The Library History Essay Award is an annual prize for the best article or chapter on library history published in, or pertaining to, the British Isles, within the previous calendar year (i.e. 2024).  Introduced in 1996, the award is organized and sponsored by the LIHG and aims to support the publication of research into library history in the British Isles.

The prize is £350.

Submissions should contain original historical research and be based on original source materials if possible. Evidence of methodological and historiographical innovation is particularly welcome.

Authors may put themselves forward for the prize but may make only one submission per year. Any member of CILIP may also nominate a published essay for consideration.

The entries will be identified and judged by a panel of three:

• Chair of the LIHG
• Awards Manager of the LIHG
• Additional assessor at the invitation of the LIHG Committee

Nominations (and any queries relating to the award) should be sent to the Group's Awards Manager:

Dr Dorothy Clayton, Awards Manager, LIHG

Deadline for submissions for the Library History Essay Award 2025 is 30 September 2025.

NB: the article/book chapter must have been published in 2024.  

Previous Winners