in 2002, the council's literature & medicine program was named as a patient quality initiative by the maine hospital association. the program then received the 2003 helen & martin schwartz prize for excellence in public programming from the federation of state humanities councils. the council's national awards include a 1998 award of merit from the american association of state and local history for the century project and the 1998 helen & martin schwartz prize for excellence in public programming given by the federation of state humanities councils for the odyssey project. most recently, the council received three national awards for its taxing maine program: the award of merit and the wow award from the american association for state and local history and the 2007 helen & martin schwartz prize from the federation of state humanities councils. "taxing maine" is now available on the council's humanities on demand podcast.