# 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## What past winners look like (Wikipedia list, read; partial and flagged out of date)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
1. **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).
2. **Check the date rule:** only things that first appeared in 2026. Write down the launch date from the build log or first commit.
3. **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).
4. **Neutral heritage framing only.** Judges are librarians: lead with the place's history and the records, not any dispute. Run the banned-word check.
5. **Send early, not on the deadline:** January 2027 gives time for the "appeared in 2026" proof if they ask.
6. **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)