Journal of Map and Geography Libraries/GEOSCAPES BEST PAPER OF THE YEAR AWARD

It is with great pleasure and excitement that Co-Editors Paige G. Andrew and Mary Lynette Larsgaard announce that the winner of the Geoscapes Best Paper of the Year Award for volume 3 (2006/2007) of the Journal of Map and Geography Libraries/Geoscapes is Yolanda Theunissen for her article, "Developing and Promoting Outreach Services for Elementary and Middle Schools: Case Study of a Rare-Map Library at a Public University," which appears on pages 5-22 of issue number 2. Yolanda's article was unanimously selected as the best article - from nine articles published in volume three - by a panel from the journal's Editorial Board.

Yolanda is Curator of the Osher Map Library and Director of the Smith Center of Cartographic Education, University of Southern Maine, in Portland.

This overview article about the rare-map libraries performing outreach to the K-12 community is especially outstanding for highlighting the importance of introducing new communities to the wonders and beauty of early maps, while at the same time keeping the maps safe from damage. It notes the sorts of activities that a map library can undertake in order to make its collections known to a young community of persons who will probably never have seen early maps before their first visit to the map library. The author has obviously spent considerable time and effort on the best ways to perform outreach to the K-12 community, and gives the map librarian who is working on outreach several ways to proceed; to the reviewers' eyes, it makes for fascinating reading. The Award Committee found that this article relates well to the continuing need to publicize our collections to diverse communities. This will become a standard "read" for incoming map librarians interested in public relations.

As winner of the Geoscapes Best Paper of the Year Award, Yolanda will receive a complimentary subscription to the journal, a $100 Haworth Press gift certificate and a framed award certificate. In addition, Haworth will present, in Yolanda's name, a complimentary two-year international subscription of the journal to an in-need center that would otherwise not be able to afford to subscribe to the journal.

Congratulations, Yolanda!

- Paige Andrew and Mary Larsgaard
Co-Editors, JMGL/Geoscapes