News & Noteworthy

2014 Frederick G. Kilgour Award

CHICAGO — The Library & Information Technology Association (LITA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), has announced Michael Buckland as the 2014 winner of the Frederick G. Kilgour Award for Research in Library and Information Technology. The award, which is jointly sponsored by OCLC, is given for research relevant to the development of information technologies, especially work that shows promise of having a positive and substantive impact on any aspect(s) of the publication, storage, retrieval and dissemination of information, or the processes by which information and data is manipulated and managed. The awardee receives $2,000, a citation and travel expenses to attend the award ceremony at the ALA Annual Conference in Las Vegas, where the award will be presented on June 29, 2014.

In 2014 Dr. Michael Buckland is recognized for his outstanding educational leadership and research in Library and Information Science.  As professor of the School of Information at the University of California, Berkeley Dr. Buckland led research in libraries, information retrieval, translingual search, bibliographic and metadata services, the history and theory of documentation, digital libraries and the representation of cultural heritage institutions. During his time at the University of California, Dr. Buckland served as the dean of the School of Library & Information Studies at UC Berkeley (1976-84) as well as assistant vice president for library plans and policies with the UC Office of the President (1983-87).  As emeritus professor, he coordinates the long-running Friday afternoon Information Access Seminar at the School of Information.

During his career, Buckland has pioneered research in Library and Information Science issues, publishing widely in Information Science venues.  He has advised numerous doctoral students and has received support from the A.W. Mellon and Coleman Fung foundations, from the National Science Foundation, from the Institute for Museum and Library Services and from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to advance Information Science research.  He served as president of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (1998) and was the 2012 awardee of the ASIS&T Award of Merit.

He is the author of five books, including “Emanuel Goldberg and his Knowledge Machine,”  “Redesigning Library Services,” “Library Services in Theory and ‘Context,'” “Information and Information Systems” and “Book Availability and the Library User.” He holds the distinction of being one of the most heavily cited authors in the field of Library and Information Science and his scholarship spans nearly 50 years. Buckland began his career at the Bodleian Library of Oxford University and obtained his PhD from Sheffield University with a dissertation titled Library Stock Control.  In addition to his service at The University of California, Dr. Buckland has worked at Purdue University and The University of Lancaster as well as visiting positions in Austria, Australia and Sweden.  In 1989 he won the distinction of being a Fulbright Research Scholar located at the Graz University of Technology in Austria.

Notified of the award, he said:  “It is both an honor and a pleasure to be associated with Fred Kilgour. It is an honor because he was a man to admire: a chemist, an historian, a librarian, an innovator, and a leader. It is also a personal pleasure because of the kindness he showed me when I first met him in 1971. I was a young English librarian visiting the USA. OCLC had just gone online and I went to see it. Fred decided that I should move Columbus, Ohio, and arranged a schedule of job interviews the very next day. He and Eleanor welcomed me to their home, took me out to dinner, and drove me around neighborhoods in which they thought my wife and I might want to live. The award committee could not have known how much receiving the Frederick G. Kilgour award would mean to me.”

Members of the 2013 Frederick G.  Kilgour Award committee are: Erik Mitchell, University of California, Berkeley (chair); Brett Bonfield, Collingswood Public Library (past chair); Rebecca Mugridge, SUNY, University at Albany; Kebede Wordofa, Austin Peay State University;  Tao Zhang, Purdue University; David King, LITA board liaison; and Roy Tennant, OCLC liaison.

More information about the Frederick G. Kilgour Award for Research in Library and Information Technology (LITA / OCLC) is available on the LITA website.

About LITA

Established in 1966, LITA is the leading organization reaching out across types of libraries to provide education and services for a broad membership of over 3,000 systems librarians, library technologists, library administrators, library schools, vendors and many others interested in leading edge technology and applications for librarians and information providers.  For more information, visit www.lita.org.

About OCLC

Founded in 1967, OCLC is a nonprofit, membership, computer library service and research organization dedicated to the public purposes of furthering access to the world’s information and reducing library costs. OCLC Research is one of the world’s leading centers devoted exclusively to the challenges facing libraries in a rapidly changing information environment. It works with the community to collaboratively identify problems and opportunities, prototype and test solutions, and share findings through publications, presentations and professional interactions. For more information, visit www.oclc.org/research.