The Geoscience Information Society (GSIS) honored five outstanding  geoscience publications in an award ceremony held during the Geological Society of America’s recent annual meeting in Seattle.

 

Encyclopedia of Marine Geosciences, edited by Jan Harff, Martin Meschede, Sven Peterson, and Jörn Thiede, was honored with the 2017 Mary B. Ansari Best Geoscience Research Resource Award.  The work was published by Springer in 2016 and is an interdisciplinary synthesis of the georesources of the oceans and marginal seas.  It targets a broad range of users, from students and researchers to industry and government policy-makers.  The Ansari Award has been given annually since 1988 and recognizes an outstanding reference work published in the field of geoscience information during the previous three years.

 

Birgit Schmidt, Birgit Gemeinholzer, and Andrew Treloar were awarded the 2017 Best Geoscience Paper Award for “Open data in global environmental research: The Belmont Forum’s open data survey.”  Their paper was published in PLOS ONE  in January 2016, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0146695/.  The selection committee described it as “an excellent and timely article that should be read by all geoscience librarians.”  Schmidt is in the Electronic Publishing unit of the State and University Library, University of Göttingen. Gemeinholzer is in the Systematic Botany Group at the University of Giessen.  Treloar is with the Australian National Data Service in Melbourne.

 

Three awards recognizing excellence in geoscience guidebook publishing were presented.  Guidebook to the Geology of Barringer Meteorite Crater, Arizona (a.k.a. Meteor Crater), 2nd edition, by David A. Kring received the Best Guidebook Award.  It was published by the Lunar and Planetary Institute in 2017 and is available as a free download on the LPI website (https://www.lpi.usra.edu).   The Outstanding Geologic Field Trip Guidebook Series Award was presented to the Geological Society of America, in recognition of its sustained contributions to guidebook publishing over time.  A new award celebrating guidebooks aimed at a non-professional audience was given for the first time this year.  Roadside Geology of Southern California, by Arthur G. Sylvester and Elizabeth O’Black Gans (Mountain Press, 2016), was the inaugural recipient of the Best Guidebook (Popular) Award.

 

The Geoscience Information Society is an international professional organization devoted to improving the exchange of information in the earth sciences.  The membership consists of librarians, editors, cartographers, educators, and information professionals. Information about the Society may be found at its website www.geoinfo.org.