The Patricia Alonso Memorial Prize

The Patricia Alonso Memorial Prize was established in 1990 to commemorate Patricia Alonso’s contribution to map librarianship through the Australian Map Circle (AMC), now the Australian and New Zealand Map Society (ANZMapS).
The prize was originally awarded in alternate years by the Australian Map Circle and the Mapping Sciences Institute of Australia (MSIA) to the student achieving the best third-year results in the Bachelor of Applied Science (Multimedia Cartography) degree at RMIT University (formerly the
Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology until 1992). It is now awarded annually by ANZMapS to the student with the best third-year results in RMIT’s Bachelor of Science (Geospatial Science) degree.

The prize consists of $500 and one year’s membership in ANZMapS.

About Patricia Alonso

Patricia Alonso (née Greechie) was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1945. She graduated from Girls’ Latin School in 1963 and earned a BA in German and Geography from Barnard College, New York, in 1967. During her studies, she married José Alonso, a Cuban-born chemical engineering student. She completed a Master of Science at Columbia University’s School of Library Service in 1969, working as assistant to the Map Curator at the American Geographical Society Library (1967–68).

After graduation, Patricia and José moved to Australia, where he joined the University of Melbourne’s Chemical Engineering department. Patricia initially worked at the Baillieu Library as Acting Map Curator in 1970. She was then appointed Map Curator at the State Library of Victoria, holding the role until 1974, before becoming Map Curator at the University of Melbourne’s Centre for Environmental Studies.

In 1973, Patricia played a pivotal role in founding the Australian Map Curators’ Circle (AMCC). She contacted Tom Knight, Map Curator at the National Library of Australia, proposing a national meeting of map curators in response to the rapid growth of map collections. This led to a seminar at the National Library on 12–13 April 1973, attended by 30 participants, and the formation of the AMCC with Knight as president. Patricia was founding editor of the AMCC’s journal, The Globe, producing its first four issues (1974–75), and served as Vice-President in 1978.

From the mid-1970s to early 1980s, she lectured part-time at RMIT in Cartographic Theory and Map Collection Management as part of the Diploma of Applied Science in Cartography. From 1979 to 1984, she was also a Lecturer in Town and Regional Planning at the University of Melbourne. In 1982, the AMCC was renamed the Australian Map Circle (AMC). Patricia completed a PhD in Environmentalism and Land-Use Planning at the University of Melbourne in 1986.

Her final role was Manager of Cartographic Services at the Victorian Ministry of Planning and Environment. She resigned in 1987 following a brain tumour diagnosis and passed away on 10 March 1989.

In her honour, the AMC established the Patricia Alonso Memorial Prize. She was also a member of several professional associations, including the Library Association of Australia, the Australian Institute of Cartographers, AURISA, and the Society of Indexers in Australia.