By Sally Holterhoff, Government Documents Librarian, Valparaiso University School of Law Library

Heading into the year 2000 with all its new beginnings, the ALL-SIS has created a brand-new award. The Frederick Charles Hicks Award will recognize contributions made to academic law librarianship by an individual or group. The award is named in honor of the first great law librarian/scholar in the U.S., who was also the first academic law librarian to serve as AALL president. The proposal for this award was written by the ALL-SIS 1999-2000 Awards Committee and was approved in September by the ALL-SIS Executive Board. The ALL-SIS has established the Hicks Award to honor individuals whose continued efforts to improve academic law librarianship have "made a difference." Preference in judging will be given to nominees who are members of the ALL-SIS. While there is no shortage of potential award winners, it is up to ALL-SIS members to take the initiative by nominating candidates to be considered for the first award. Nominations may be sent to ALL-SIS Awards Committee Chair Sally Holterhoff by the February 1 deadline. Further details about award procedures and criteria are available on the ALL-SIS website (http://aall.wuacc.edu/sis/allsis/). To learn more about the namesake of this award, check the web-site for excerpts from several Law Library Journal articles from the 1940s and 1950s that feature Frederick C. Hicks. Presentation of the award plaque to the winner for 2000 will take place at the Academic Reception during the AALL annual meeting in Philadelphia next July. With the support of members, the ALL-SIS hopes that the Hicks award will be a source of pride among academic law librarians for years to come.