OCLC Kilgour Award

The Frederick G. Kilgour Award

In 2022 this award was paused.

OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Incorporated and the Library and Information Technology Association (LITA), a division of the American Library Association, sponsor this annual award to highlight research relevant to the development of information technologies, especially work that shows promise of having a positive and substantive impact on any aspect of the publication, storage, retrieval, and dissemination of information, or the processes by which information and data are manipulated and managed.

About the award

First awarded in 1998, the Frederick G. Kilgour Award generally is made on an annual basis. It consists of $2,000 in cash and an expense-paid trip to the ALA conference (airfare and two nights' lodging). Greater weight is given to completed research over work in progress, and an emphasis is placed on the clarity with which results are demonstrated or presented. The award is presented at the LITA President's program at the ALA Annual Conference.

Recipients  

  • 2021: Dr. Trevor Owens, Library of Congress.
  • 2020: Dr. Jian Qin, Syracuse University
  • 2019: Charles R. McClure, Florida State University
  • 2018: Richard P. Smiraglia, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
  • 2017: Timothy Cole, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
  • 2016: June Abbas, University of Oklahoma
  • 2015: Ed Summers, University of Maryland
  • 2014: Michael Buckland, University of California, Berkeley
  • 2013: Barbara Tillett, Library of Congress
  • 2012: G. Sayeed Choudhury , Johns Hopkins University
  • 2011: Dr. Daniel J. Cohen , George Mason University
  • 2010: Dr. John Willinsky , Stanford University
  • 2009: William H. Mischo , University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
  • 2008: Jane Greenberg , University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
  • 2007: Richard Pearce-Moses , Arizona State Library
  • 2006: Ching-chih Chen , Simmons College
  • 2005: William E. Moen , University of North Texas
  • 2004: Carl Lagoze , Cornell University
  • 2003: Herbert Van de Sompel , Research Library, Los Alamos National Laboratory
  • 2002: Carol C. Kuhlthau, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey
  • 2001: Marcia Bates, University of California, Los Angeles, California
  • 2000: Gary Marchionini, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
  • 1999: Dean K. Jue, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida
  • 1998: Karen Markey Drabenstott, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan

Eligibility and nominations

Librarians and information professionals or others involved in research and development in information technology are eligible for the Kilgour award.

Nominations will be accepted from any member of the American Library Association. Nominating letters should briefly address how the research is relevant to libraries; is creative in its design or methodology; builds on existing research or enhances potential for future exploration; and/or solves an important current problem in the provision of information resources. In addition, a complete curriculum vita and a copy of several seminal publications by the nominee must be included. Nominees may be asked to submit additional information to the award committee.

A press release from the LITA office will announce the details of the nominating process each year. Nominations may be sent to the current chairperson of the Kilgour Award Committee.

Currently serving officers and elected officials of LITA, members of the Kilgour Award Committee, and OCLC employees and their immediate family members are ineligible.

About the sponsors

OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Incorporated 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 information costs. More than 50,540 libraries in 84 countries and territories around the world use OCLC services including cataloging, reference, resource sharing, eContent and preservation services.

LITA, a division of the American Library Association, focuses on automated and technological systems within the library and information field


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