Stephen Ammidown, manuscript and outreach archivist at Bowling Green University’s Browne Popular Culture
Library, has been named the RWA Cathie Linz Librarian of the Year.
Last week, Romance Writers of America announced the recipients of its annual RWA Awards.
The RWA Cathie Linz Librarian of the Year is awarded to a librarian who demonstrates outstanding support
of romance authors and the romance genre. Ammidown will be presented with this award at the annual RWA
Conference, which will be held July 24-27 in New York City.
Ammidown is the manuscripts and outreach archivist for the Browne Popular Culture Library at BGSU, a
position he has held since 2016. He focuses on making the collections of the Browne Popular Culture
Library more accessible to researchers and creating a greater public awareness of the library and its
work. A native of Mansfield, Massachusetts, he obtained his master of library science degree from the
University of Maryland, College Park in 2014.
During his time at BGSU, Ammidown has improved online access to the Popular Culture Library’s manuscript
collections, including those of the Romance Writers of America and more than 40 romance authors. In
2018, he organized the Researching the Romance Conference, a two-day event that brought together
academics, authors, and fans of romance fiction to talk about the past, present and future of the genre.
Also in 2018, he presented on the library’s romance fiction collections at the national Popular Culture
Association conference in Indianapolis.
Founded in 1969, the Browne Popular Culture Library is dedicated to the acquisition and preservation of
primary research materials in the field of American Popular Culture from the 1870s to the present. The
library’s goal is to collect, preserve and make available popular culture materials to researchers
worldwide and to support the academic needs of BGSU. Its collections fall into four major categories:
popular genre fiction, popular entertainment, advertising/consumer culture and fandom. The library
became the repository for the historical records of the Romance Writers of America in 1996, and
additionally holds manuscript materials from more than 40 authors of romance fiction.
Romance Writers of America’s mission is to advance the professional and common business interests of
career-focused romance writers through networking and advocacy and by increasing public awareness of the
romance genre. Romance fiction is a $1 billion industry, and it’s a consistent, top-performing category
on the best-seller lists.
To learn more about romance fiction and RWA, visit http://www.rwa.org or call 832-717-5200, ext. 128.
