Alan Ball Awards (CILIP Local Studies Group): free entry for the 2026 e-books and site
Harvested 31 Oct 2026 (~02:15Z). Topic was not in INDEX.md before ('alan ball', 'e-publication', 'local history award' all 0 hits; the existing book-awards file covers Wales Book of the Year, The Small Awards covers business awards).
What it is (primary source, read in full 31 Oct 2026)
CILIP Local Studies Group page "Local Studies Publication & E-publication Awards" (localstudieslibrarians.org): - Aim: "encourage the production of high quality publicly or locally funded local history publications". - Open to all heritage and community organisations, and to individuals that have self-published. - Judges look at "not just ... the quality and content of a publication, but its whole journey i.e. how it was conceived, who is involved and how it was funded". - Publications include books, maps, manuscripts, catalogues, bibliographies, CDs/DVDs, websites, apps, blogs. - 2026 award, three categories: Print publication; E-publication (e-books, journals, websites, virtual exhibitions, blogs, apps; no physical in-gallery installations); Community Award (best community publication in either). - Eligibility window: appeared January to December 2026. - Deadline: end of February 2027. E-entries go through a short web form on that page (name, email, project title, launch date, URL, details for the judges). Print entries need a hard copy and a paper form posted to CILIP LSG (Alan Ball Awards), c/o Library, The National Archives, Kew. - Prize: certificate, a winner's logo, and the title "Alan Ball Award winner" for promotional material. No entry fee is mentioned on the page (not checked further; the form asks for none). - Contact named on the page: the CILIP LSG chair ([address kept in the project workspace]).
What past winners look like (Wikipedia list, read; partial and flagged out of date)
- At most three awards a year; running since the 1980s.
- 2021 e-publication winner: South West Heritage Trails, Torbay Discovery Heritage Trail (a website by South West Heritage Trust).
- 2020 e-publication winner: the Stroudwater History website.
- 2021 hard-copy highly commended included a self-published book (Clare Wichbold, Hard Work - But Glorious, Herefordshire suffrage), so self-publishers do place.
- Winners skew to societies, trusts and parish history groups with a clear method and community involvement.
Why it's worth one evening (honest read)
- Cost: zero. Effort: one 300-500 word statement plus a link.
- Payoff if placed: an independent library-sector endorsement and a logo for /ebooks/ and the press kit. Trust signals like this are what a 0-sales shop lacks most.
- Payoff if not placed: the judges (local studies librarians) have seen the site. That is the exact audience who buy for, and point readers to, local collections.
- Odds: small. Max three awards across the UK; our subject is a single estate. Treat it as a free lottery ticket with a good audience, not a plan.
Playbook
- Pick one entry per category, not five. E-publication: the e-book set or the site's chronology section, whichever reads most like a finished publication on a phone. Community Award only if a society, volunteers or a library genuinely took part (don't stretch it).
- Check the date rule: only things that first appeared in 2026. Write down the launch date from the build log or first commit.
- Write to the criteria they publish, in this order: how it was conceived (the question it answers); who was involved (archives consulted, record offices, volunteers; no private individuals named without consent); how it was funded (self-funded, zero grant); what's new (records gathered in one place, catalogue IDs, open access pages, Welsh/English/Spanish); who uses it (any numbers from the Sunday growth report).
- Neutral heritage framing only. Judges are librarians: lead with the place's history and the records, not any dispute. Run the banned-word check.
- Send early, not on the deadline: January 2027 gives time for the "appeared in 2026" proof if they ask.
- If it places: add the logo and one line to /ebooks/, the press kit and the e-book back matter; log it for the growth report.
Gate
Submitting the form is an outward act in the project's name. It needs the project lead's GO, after he reads the exact text. Until then the statement sits as a draft.
How we apply it to Cedwyn
- Entry: E-publication category. Candidate title: the Cedwyn chronology and its 2026 e-books (cedwyn.bucklerfamily.estate, /ebooks/). Launch date taken from the repo's first public commit for each part.
- Draft: write the 300-500 word statement to the published criteria. Keep it as a HubSpot task, "[BIZDEV] Alan Ball Award 2026 e-publication entry: draft for the project lead's GO" (NOT_STARTED), with a due date of 15 Jan 2027 and the form URL. Nothing is submitted without his GO.
- Editorial rules: never name the project lead; banned words (states, assertions, per, second-hand report, not checked, reported, deception, taken); no insignia; nothing about family holdings or addresses; Llandough Farm is a different property.
- Measure: one line in the growth report when sent, and any result in spring 2027 (results usually come with the LSG's annual events; date not checked).
- Rejected for now: BALH annual awards. Its page 403s to a plain fetch; the snippets show they honour an individual local historian, need 300-500 word references from a referee, and use an online nomination form. That's not a fit for a publication, and it needs a third party to nominate.
Sources
- localstudieslibrarians.org (read in full, 31 Oct 2026)
- en.wikipedia.org (read; partial list, flagged out of date)
- balh.org.uk (403; search snippet only, not checked)
Raw Markdown: alan-ball-awards-cilip-local-studies-e-publication-entry.md · version and changes: changelog · machine index: agents.json