Kurt Munson named 2018 Distinguished ILL Librarian

CHICAGO—Kurt Munson, Assistant Head of Access Services at Northwestern University Library was selected as the 2018 winner of the Sharing and Transforming Resources Section's (STARS) Virginia Boucher Distinguished ILL (Interlibrary Loan) Librarian Award, sponsored by OCLC, administered by the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA), a division of the American Library Association. The award consists of $2,000 and a citation, which recognizes an individual for outstanding professional achievement, leadership, and contributions to interlibrary loan and document delivery through recent publication of significant professional literature, participation in professional associations, and/or innovative approaches to practice in individual libraries.

Munson works with numerous vendors and development partners to improve automation and interoperability of resource sharing systems, often representing the 15 academic libraries within the Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA). Since 2012 he has served as one of two BTAA representatives on the Relais D2D User group and as the primary support person for UBorrow Addons and configuration. Because of his assistance with development, testing, and implementation, these Addons have successfully processed more than 290,000 BTAA consortial borrowing requests to date. He was especially instrumental in testing the Relais FindItem web services and the related ILLiad Addon, which have substantially increased the number of UBorrow requests filled without staff mediation (from 65,547 in 2014 to 98,079 in 2017). Kurt was also selected to represent the BTAA on the first and second iteration of OCLC’s Tipasa advisory group, where he has worked tirelessly to articulate the resource sharing needs of large academic libraries and advocate for system development that meets those needs.

"In addition to his work with the BTAA, Kurt has established himself as one of the foremost authorities on resource sharing systems," selection committee Chair, Mary Hollerich praised. He is a frequent speaker at resource sharing conferences across the country and around the world, and he has published extensively in a wide variety of library journals, from Interlending & Document Supply to portal: Libraries and the Academy to the Journal of Interlibrary Loan, Document Delivery and Electronic Reserve. "His recent white papers on next generation resource sharing management and discovery to delivery systems are sure to have a global impact as they provide a framework for the resource sharing systems we will all be using for years to come."

Read more about Munson in his "STARGazer" interview here.

The selection committee includes: Mary Hollerich (Chair), Tina Baich, David K. Larsen, Lars Leon and Robin Moskal.

The Reference and User Services Association, a division of the American Library Association, represents librarians and library staff in the fields of reference, specialized reference, collection development, readers’ advisory and resource sharing. RUSA is the foremost organization of reference and information professionals who make the connections between people and the information sources, services, and collection materials they need. Learn more about the association at www.rusaupdate.org.