Knight to Receive 2026 Pratt Severn Student Paper Award
The Association for Information Science & Technology (ASIS&T) is delighted to announce that Katherine Knight has been selected as the 2026 recipient of the Pratt Severn Best Student Research Paper Award. The purpose of the award is to encourage student research and writing in the field of information science.
Knight’s paper entitled, “Librarians, not lawyers: a qualitative study of the perceptions and experiences of librarians facilitating legal research to foreign national prisoners in English prisons” was selected from among a pool of outstanding candidates who were judged based on criteria including: technical competence in information science; significance of information science findings; originality; clarity of expression; compliance with JASIST instructions; style; and organization.
Katherine is currently an Assistant Librarian at Hertford College, Oxford and is pursuing her Master’s degree in Library and Information Studies at University College London. Her focus is in prison librarianship. She was initially drawn towards prison librarianship as an area in which information is both highly restricted and sought after. A two-week work placement in a foreign-national only prison library in April 2024 led her to consider research at the intersection of three areas: the legal information needs of prisoners in general, the information needs of foreign national prisoners in particular, and the experience of prison librarians in facilitating information provision. —especially outside of traditional institutions. service.
Upon learning of her selection as the winner of the 2026 Pratt Severn Best Student Research Paper Award, Knight said, “I am delighted to have been selected for this year’s ASIS&T Pratt Severn Award. My research occurred at the intersection of several very different and context-dependent areas of information theory, and I would like to thank the jury for engaging with my work so thoroughly. I am also very grateful to my supervisor Dr. Meg Westbury and UCL in supporting me in pursuing this vital area of library research, and to all in the prison library community who shared their experiences with me throughout this research project.”
Knight will receive the award during the 2026 meeting of ASIS&T which will be held 6-10 November 2026 in Bangkok, Thailand.
About ASIS&T
The Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) is the only professional association that bridges the gap between information science practice and research. For nearly 90 years, ASIS&T has been leading the search for new and better theories, techniques, and technologies to improve access to information.