Reference and User Services Association awards
The Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) annual Outstanding Reference Sources awards are considered the highest awards honoring academic reference books or media. Besides these awards, the American Library Association (ALA) also grants other medals and honors including the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction and the Dartmouth Medal for the "creation of a reference work of outstanding quality and significance." In addition, the ALA List of Notable Books for Adults, selected by the RUSA Notable Books Council, has been chosen yearly since 1944. Nomination and awards decisions are made by  the ALA's Reference and User Services Association (RUSA), the "authority in top reference works in print or on World Wide Web." Awards are selected by RUSA's Collection Development and Evaluation Section (CODES) Reference Sources Committee. An annotated list of their selection of outstanding reference works is published annually in the May issue of "American Libraries". Recent RUSA Book and Media Awards. 2009 Awards. Dartmouth Medal: Greenwood Publishing, Pop Culture Universe. Honorable mention: Gershon David Hundert, YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe.