Contact: Mary Taylor
Executive Director, LITA
312-280-4267
mtaylor@ala.org
 
For Immediate Release
April 17, 2007

 

LITA names 2007 Kilgour award winner


CHICAGO - Richard Pearce-Moses is the winner of the Frederick G. Kilgour Award for Research in Library and Information Technology for 2007. The award is sponsored by OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc. and the Library and Information Technology Association (LITA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA).

 

“The Kilgour Award Committee takes great pleasure in acknowledging the work contributions of Richard Pearce-Moses, whose work in the area of preservation of Web information resources, together with the blending of professional practices and new technologies, provide a conceptual shift in the thinking of the organization of large-scale collections of digital information,” said Susan K. Martin, chair of the award committee.

 

Among Pearce-Moses’ achievements is the Arizona Model for preservation and access of web documents.  The Model evolved from his work at the Arizona State library as director of Digital Government Information.  It builds on a large body of theoretical and practical archival literature, and transposes these concepts to solve a practical library problem in organizing and cataloging information on Web sites.

 

The Arizona Model is currently a major component of a research project developed by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and OCLC.  The ECHO DEPository research project is funded by the Library of Congress through a grant under the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIPP), and is focused on developing software tools to support an archival approach to curating a collection of digital state documents.  The tools are intended to harness the power of computers to analyze the enormous amount of information on the Web and present it in a way that supports the work of individuals who use human judgment to curate the collection.  In the digital era, Pearce-Moses’ work stands out for its focus on key issues and its blending of professional practice and new technologies.

 

As president of the Society of American Archivists in 2005-2006, he worked diligently to build bridges between the records, archives, and library communities.  He has a genuine vision of the broad information environment and a commitment to forging collaboration to ensure the preservation of the cultural record.

 

Pearce-Moses received a master’s degree in Library and Information Science from University of Illinois in 2001, and a master’s degree in American Studies from the University of Texas in 1987. He is a director of Digital Government Information at the Arizona State Library.      

 

The award was established to honor the achievements of Frederick G. Kilgour, the founder of OCLC and a seminal figure in library automation. The award is given to a person who has amassed a significant body of research in the field of library and information technology. Particular recognition is given to research which results in a positive and substantive impact on the publication, storage, retrieval and dissemination of information. The award consists of $2,000, an expense paid trip to the ALA Annual Conference, and a citation of merit. Pearce-Moses will be accepting the award at the LITA President's Program on Sunday, June 24, 2007, at the ALA Annual Conference in Washington, DC.

 

The Library and Information Technology Association (LITA) members are information technology professionals dedicated to educating, serving, and reaching out to the entire library and information community.   LITA is a division of the American Library Association.

 

 

 

 

LITA names winner of 2007 Kilgour Award