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This award honors a person who has made a lifetime and significant contribution to the field of government documents and their use in libraries.

The many letters received in support of his nomination list contributions in a number of areas including: leadership as a government documents librarian, teaching and mentoring of government documents librarians, work with GODORT, the Depository Library Council, the Patent Depository Library Association, the Oklahoma Library Association, contributions to the TRAIL project, and work with publishers creating highly valued reference tools and documents collections. His contributions span close to forty years.

Many of his letters speak words of great praise for his career in the Government Documents Department at Oklahoma State University, starting as a documents cataloger, moving up to department head, and later adding the title Director, Digital Oklahoma Maps Collection. In addition, the letters speak of John’s commitment to the students and faculty at Oklahoma State and the seriousness with which he carried out his role as regional depository librarian. Also mentioned was John’s passion for advocating the primary research value of historical government publications and his love for speaking about how to find and use historical materials. (Please ask him about barbed wire!) The McCasland Digital Collection of Early Oklahoma and Indian Territory Maps was often pointed to as a great example of his work.

John’s letters noted his role as a teacher and mentor. For many years, he taught the government publications course at the University of Oklahoma School of Library and Information Studies. He has influenced many librarians over the course of his career, including some whose names are well known in depository circles and some whose names will become known in the next few years.

His association with GODORT has been long and productive including chairing the Rare and Endangered Publications Committee and the Awards Committee. He also served as secretary of the Ad Hoc Committee on Digitization of Government Information and, in 2003, he received the Bernadine Abbott Hoduski Founders Award.

He was a member of the Depository Library Council and served as Chair during the final year of his term. John has also made a number of presentations at the Federal Depository Library Conference. He was an active participant in the Regional Depository Librarians meetings and served a year as chair of that group. Following the fall 2004 Depository Library Council Meeting he was invited to speak with the staff of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration about the transition from a predominately print to a more electronic FDLP.

Also noted in the letters were John’s contributions to patent depositories. He was a founding member of the Patent Depository Library Association and served as a Regional Representative, as well as Chair-elect and Chair. He compiled the Directory of Patent Depository Libraries. In recognition of his years of giving presentations and workshops on patents, the Oklahoma Inventor’s Congress granted him a lifetime membership. John has also been very active in the Oklahoma Library Association, giving numerous presentations and poster sessions over the years and serving as chair of the OLA Government Documents Roundtable. In 2007, the Oklahoma Library Association presented him with the Oklahoma Library Legends Award.

In short, John is a leader within the national field of government documents librarianship, and his professional endeavors are of the highest quality and value to the profession. Two quotes from his letters of support sum up why he was selected for the Childs Award: “John loves government documents and one of his greatest joys is sharing and inspiring this love with others” and “John has been one of the most dedicated, caring, knowledgeable, and informative government information librarians I’ve ever known.”