Laurie J. Sampsel (PhD 2010) has been awarded the Music Library Association’s Vincent H. Duckles Award for the best book-length bibliography or other research tool in music. The honor comes in response to Sampsel’s Music Research: A Handbook (Oxford University Press, 2009), a monograph that draws on her extensive experience as an Associate Professor and Head of the Music Library at University of Colorado, Boulder. The MLA’s encomium for Music Research: A Handbook sums up both what Sampsel’s book has to offer and why her contribution is so significant.

“Anyone who has stood before a music bibliography class on Day One knows firsthand what daunting work lies ahead. Laurie Sampsel’s Music Research: A Handbook comes to us then as a welcome gift offering great relief. Informed by a decade of teaching graduate-level music bibliography, Sampsel skillfully demystifies and codifies the field. Part enumerative bibliography and part teaching guide, the work addresses distinctive needs of students and instructors alike. Students will appreciate the book as a concise and approachable introduction to an unfamiliar (if not daunting) field; instructors will be grateful for its evaluative checklists, suggested readings, and other features that can be used to enhance classroom teaching. This carefully prepared, well-edited handbook will be essential reading for music librarians, graduate students, and music faculty for years to come.”

Congratulations are certainly in order to Dr. Sampsel on receiving the Vincent H. Duckles Award and upon the successful completion of her PhD in musicology. We look forward to her many scholarly contributions in the future.