LOU SEBERT LITERARY AWARD
(in honour of the late L.M. Sebert)

Background: A suggestion for a literary award was made by L.M. Sebert at the June 27, 2002, meeting of the Canadian Institute of Geomatics (CIG) Publications Committee. He suggested giving some consideration to consolidating existing awards, and to creating a “Geomatica Literary Award,” which may or may not be awarded each year, depending on there being deserving nominations for the award. Lou died suddenly on August 1, 2002, before he was able to draft criteria for discussion. The Publications Committee has since established this award, naming it the Lou Sebert Literary Award.

Purpose: To recognize and encourage literary excellence in the field of geomatics, and to promote and support geomatics in Canada.

Award: A plaque and a certificate will be presented to the award-winner, and that person’s work will be highlighted in four consecutive issues of Geomatica.

Frequency of Award: The award may, or may not, be granted each year, depending on there being a suitable nomination. Although it would be an unusual circumstance, if two pieces of exceptional work were to be nominated, at the judges’ discretion, the author of the second-place work may receive an Honourable Mention, also accompanied by a plaque and certificate.

Eligibility Criteria: For a literary work to be considered for the award, it must:

• be a significant and already published work in either French or English, or both, in the order of 20,000 words as an approximate minimum;
• be published within the two calendar years previous to the year of the award or published in the year of the award;
• be about some field of geomatics; and
• be written by a Canadian author or about a Canadian geomatics subject.

Judging Criteria: Eligible candidates for the Award should be judged on:

• Literary excellence.
• Technical/scientific value to the geomatics community, if the work is on a technical/scientific topic.
• Interest to readers both within and outside of the geomatics community, if the work is historical, biographical, or otherwise largely non-technical.

Judges: CIG will maintain a list of judges from which three judges could be called upon, as needed, to judge a work. The list will comprise such people as the heads of geomatics departments and the English and French departments of Canadian universities.

Nominations: Written nominations for works to be considered for the award should be mailed to: Canadian Institute of Geomatics, 900 Dynes Road, Suite 100 D, Ottawa, Ontario K2C 3L6. Authors may nominate their own works, as may another party. The nominator is required to write a short essay of 500-1000 words explaining why he or she considers the work to be exceptional and thus worth.