This issue of FOCUS on Global Resources highlights the three projects selected for recognition in this year’s Center for Research Libraries Primary Source Awards program. CRL created the program in 2009 to promote awareness and use of primary historical evidence in research and teaching. Identifying and recognizing innovative uses of primary sources helps us to better understand the paths taken by scholarly inquiry today.

The projects featured here were selected from a very competitive pool nominated by faculty and librarians at CRL institutions. CRL’s Collections and Services Policy Committee, chaired by Richard Fyffe of Grinnell College, reviewed all nominations and identified the top projects in three areas: access, research, and teaching. The projects recognized by this year’s awards illustrate strategies for improving access to “hidden” collections; new approaches to the scholarly analysis of cultural data and information; and the use of CRL’s own materials to help students examine a historic event.

We hope that the awards this year and in coming years help the CRL community to promote support of advanced research and teaching. Please consider nominating a deserved colleague (or yourself) for the 2012 awards. Submissions will start being accepted in June; check the CRL website for details.

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Bernard F. Reilly, Jr.
President