Guidelines

The Center for Archival Collections is currently accepting submissions for its 2025 Local History Publication Awards. Works published between Jan. 1, 2024 and Dec. 31, 2024 will be accepted for consideration.

The Local History Publication Awards seek to encourage and recognize authors for outstanding publications in the field of Local History. For this award, local history is geographically defined as the nineteen counties within the Center’s collecting scope (Allen, Crawford, Defiance, Erie, Fulton, Hancock, Hardin, Henry, Huron, Lucas, Ottawa, Paulding, Putnam, Sandusky, Seneca, Van Wert, Williams, Wood and Wyandot), The Firelands, and Maumee Valley Region.

Categories

• The article category will consider scholarly articles, single blog posts, essays, and newsletter articles or columns. Submissions should have a maximum of 10,000 words and may be published in electronic or print formats. 
• The book category will consider monographs in either electronic or print formats.
• Textbooks, guidebooks, manuals, craft books, works of fiction, newspaper articles, and genealogies composed principally of genealogical charts are NOT eligible for consideration.

Divisions

Both categories will recognize authors for outstanding publications in two divisions.

• The professional division will include works prepared and submitted by authors who exclusively or primarily make their living as a scholar and/or writer. 
• The independent division will include works prepared and submitted by independent or local researchers, amateurs, and other creative writers who do not claim history as a profession. Each division winner will receive a $300 cash award and plaque.

Qualifications

1. The awards will be given for works of either general or specific subject interests (i.e. Native American history, prehistoric, territorial and early statehood, War of 1812, Civil War, business history, women’s history, labor history, family history, historic preservation, rural agricultural history, Great Lakes maritime (Ohio) history, or biography).
2. Any work submitted for the awards must have been copyrighted or published in the past year preceding the year in which the award is given.
3. Works shall be judged by the Awards Committee on literary merit, overall significance and contribution to explaining and understanding the history of the described region. Other considerations will include style, content, grammar, accuracy, illustrations, layout, indexes, and distribution.
4. The Awards Committee and the Center for Archival Collections reserves the right not to present the awards during any given year.

Submission Guidelines

1. Submit the online form.
2. Authors should send two copies of each work to the address below. Both copies become the property of The Center for Archival Collections. Submissions must be postmarked by Feb. 28, 2025.
   The Center for Archival Collections
   Jerome Library, 5th Floor
   Bowling Green State University
   Bowling Green, Ohio 43403-0175
3. If you have questions about these guidelines, please contact us.