About the Award
The Jim Crawford Award for Innovation in Libraries is available to individuals or groups working in, or associated with, public libraries eligible for funding by the Libraries Board of South Australia.
The intention of the award is to reward those people making a significant contribution to South Australia’s public libraries and to encourage and drive further innovation.
In line with this, the award will be granted to recognise proven outstanding contribution to public libraries as judged against the following criteria:
- The fostering and/or implementation of innovations in library services which have direct benefits to the public
- The implementation of improvements which directly advance library services for disadvantaged communities
- Demonstrated individual excellence in providing inspirational leadership in the field of public libraries
- The implementation of an outstanding proposal which keeps with the spirit of the award.
About Jim Crawford
Mr Jim Crawford was Chairman of the Libraries Board of South Australia from 1977 until 1987 and, prior to that, was a member of the Libraries Board from 1972 to 1976.
Mr Crawford was well respected for his vision, sense of justice, personal and business ethics and genuine awareness of community needs. In line with these character traits, he worked to establish a library network that would allow all South Australians to access books, information technology and other beneficial learning tools from a local library, regardless of where they lived.