Valued at up to $25,000, the Pierre Gorman Award supports improved access to or delivery of library and information services for people with a disability.

Award funds can be used for activities including (but not limited to):

• developing a new service, program or resource for people with a disability
• promoting and/or developing services in public libraries for people with a disability
• fostering skills acquisition and community development outcomes
• providing professional development for staff to cater for the special needs of people with a disability.

The Pierre Gorman Award is awarded biennially to honour the distinguished contribution made by the late Dr Pierre Gorman to research and development in library services for people with a disability.

The award is generously supported by the Pierre Gorman Foundation. The Library Board of Victoria inaugurated the Pierre Gorman Award in 1997.

About Pierre Gorman

Dr Pierre Gorman, CBE, was born in 1924. He studied at the University of Melbourne, and in 1960 became the first profoundly deaf person to graduate with a doctorate from Cambridge University.

Pierre was recognised for his devotion to improving services for the hearing and speech impaired. Continuing the work of Sir Richard Paget, he devised the Paget Gorman Sign System, and he developed the library at London's Royal National Institute for the Deaf into a leading resource on all aspects of speech and hearing.

Upon returning to Australia, Pierre led the Policy Investigation Project of the Victorian School for Deaf Children. He received an honorary doctor of laws from the University of Melbourne in 2000, and he died on his birthday in 2006.