EDITORIAL.

This article focuses on the annual awards given by the American Library Association (ALA). Awards are not so much about the people who win them as the work that earns them. ALA awards, grants, and scholarships recognize the day-to-day achievements and ambitions of often low-paid professionals dedicated to the quality of life in their communities and to the preservation and dissemination of the human record. The importance of any award--or conversely its ridiculousness--can be judged by the significance of the work it lauds.