Awards

ABOS sponsors three awards:

The John Philip Award
The ABOS John Philip Award is given to recognize outstanding contributions and prominent leadership by an individual in Bookmobile and Outreach Services.
John Philip,known to all as "Mr. Bookmobile", spent his long and honorable career as an advocate of Bookmobile and Outreach Services. He is the "Father" of the National Bookmobile Conference which started in 1986 and has now evolved into the Association of Bookmobile and Outreach Services. Through his strong leadership and high profile advocacy Bookmobiles have been recognized as a viable library outreach service. This award honors his dedication and tireless work and serves as a pinnacle for all Bookmobile and Outreach staff to aspire to reach. This award is funded by Acore Shelving and Products.

The Carol Hole Conference Attendance Grant
Carol Combs Hole provided exemplary leadership on behalf of libraries, bookmobile and outreach services throughout her 32 year career as a professional public librarian. She retired from distinguished service to the Alachua County Library District on March 1, 2006 and died on October 1, 2007. The grant includes free conference registration and a stipend for his/her travel expenses and/or accommodations for the conference. The winner automatically will be registered for the conference.  This grant is partially funded by Specialty Vehicle Services.

The Bernard Vavrek Scholarship
In order to contribute to the education and training of library staff working in the area of bookmobile and outreach services, ABOS has created the Bernard Vavrek Scholarship. It will be awarded annually to a student who has been accepted into or is currently enrolled in a Library and/or Information Science graduate degree program, and who is interested in this particular field within the library profession. A check will be sent directly to the ALA accredited library school where the applicant is currently enrolled to be applied to the next term of study.  Dr. Bernard Vavrek, Professor of Library Science and Chair of the Library Science Department at Clarion University, recently retired after teaching at Clarion from 1971-2008. He co-founded with John Philip the “Great American Bookmobile Conference” running it for many years until ABOS was formed and took over management of the conference.  This scholarship honors Dr. Vavrek’s profound commitment to library science and, in particular, bookmobile and outreach services.

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