American Library Association Melvil Dewey Medal Citation
June 29, 1978

American Library Association presents the Melvil Dewey Medal for the year 1978 to Frederick G. Kilgour.

It was out of character for him, but we all felt that Frederick G. Kilgour must have been retiring early when in 1967 he forsook Yale for something called the Ohio College Library Center.

“Where was that again, Fred?” we asked incredulously.

“O-C-what-C?”

But Fred was not retiring; rather his major contribution was just beginning. During the subsequent years he forged a device that, like the cotton gin, brought about a prompt and profound revolution in the industry to which it was applied. Life for catalog librarians was never again the same.

OCLC would not have come into being if it had not been for a quadripartite skein of skills and qualities possessed, perhaps uniquely, by Fred Kilgour. First, he was thoroughly competent librarian. Second, he had a high degree of technical acumen. Third, he was a consummate politician. And fourth, he had skin a foot thick, which was fortunate indeed because we fought him every step of the way en route to his Promised Land.

These qualities were also possessed in abundance by the namesake of this award a century ago. Let it, however, be recorded of Frederick G. Kilgour in 1978 that he may even have out-Deweyed Dewey.

Robert Wedgeworth, Executive Director, ALA
Eric Moon, President, ALA

The Best of Fred Kilgour | Awards and Recognition