The Carnegie Medal was established in 1936, in memory of the great Scottish-born philanthropist, Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919). Carnegie was a self-made industrialist who made his fortune in steel in the USA. His experience of using a library as a child led him to resolve that "if ever wealth came to me that it should be used to establish free libraries."
Carnegie set up more than 2800 libraries across the English speaking world and, by the time of his death, over half the library authorities in Great Britain had Carnegie libraries.
First awarded to Arthur Ransome for 'Pigeon Post', the winner receives a golden medal and £500 worth of books to donate to a library of their choice. Since 2016 the winner of the Carnegie Medal has also been awarded the £5,000 Colin Mears Award.
This year, 2017, marks the 80th Anniversary of the CILIP Carnegie Medal and continues throughout the year - until December 2017. See how you can get involved.
Nominations have been announced for the CILIP Carnegie Medal 2018 and can be found by visiting The CILIP website. The longlist will be announced on 15th February 2018 and the Shortlist on 15th March 2018. The winner will be announced on 18th June 2018.
Below you will find this year's winner and shortlist for the CILIP Carnegie Medal.
