ACRL College & Researc Libraries News

COLLEGE & RESEARCH LIBRARIES

DOWNS AWARD

LeRoy Charles Merritt, dean of the school of librarianship at the University of Oregon, is recipient of the first Robert B. Downs Award for outstanding contribution to intellectual freedom in libraries. The $500 award was presented June 25 at the annual alumni meeting of the University of Illinois graduate school of library science during the American Library Association Convention in Atlantic City.

The U. of I. school of library science is sponsor of the awasd, created to honor Robert Downs, dean of library administration at the U. of I. Urbana-Champaign campus, for his stands for freedom from censorship for libraries and to mark his 25 years at the University. Selection of recipients is made by the faculty of the school. Merritt was chosen for the following reasons:

His editorship of the ALA Newsletter on Intellectual Freedom, 1962 to the present.

Service to the profession in organizations devoted to freedom of information. This has included testimony before legislative committees where he frequently was the only defender of freedom to appear to counterbalance the proponents of restrictive legislation.

A large and distinguished body of writing and speaking in behalf of intellectual freedom.

Success in bringing before students the issues involved in book selection as distinct from censorship.

Considerable individual counseling with threatened librarians, both in person and in correspondence.

Service to the cause of freedom of information, in general, through his work in civic, service and other organizations in communities where he has lived and taught.

Merritt went to the University of Oregon from the University of California at Berkeley, where he had taught for over 20 years. He received his doctoral degree in library science from the University of Chicago library school.