John Byrum receives the 2006 Melvil Dewey Meda
Contact: Cheryl Malden
Program Officer
312-280-3247
cmalden@ala.org
For Immediate Release
March 20, 2006
John Byrum receives the 2006 Melvil Dewey Medal
CHICAGO — John D. Byrum, Jr., recently retired chief of the regional and cooperative cataloging division of the Library of Congress, is the 2006 recipient of the American Library Association (ALA) Melvil Dewey Medal, which recognizes distinguished service to the profession of librarianship.
Like Melvil Dewey, Byrum has been successful in cataloging and classification and the tools and techniques of librarianship. He also has been a leader in library management and library training. His published papers, conference presentations, and keynote speeches have been delivered nationally and internationally.
“The jury for this year’s Melvil Dewey Medal is pleased to honor John Byrum for his extraordinary leadership in the fields of cataloging and bibliographic standards, both nationally and internationally, during a distinguished career spanning four decades,” said Melvil Dewey Jury Chair Winston Tabb of Johns Hopkins University.
As one nominator noted, “from Princeton to the Library of Congress to ALA to the Joint Steering Committee to ISO/NISO to the Foreign MARC Coalition to IFLA, John Byrum has been a commanding presence.” Particularly noteworthy, for this award given for “recent creative leadership of a high order,” is John Byrum’s role in creating, enlarging and sustaining the Program for Cooperative Cataloging that, since its establishment in 1992, has made truly cooperative cataloging a reality for libraries throughout the world. This accomplishment is not just of a high order, but of the highest order.”
Byrum is an active member of the American Library Association and the International Federation of Library Association. He has received numerous awards including the Esther J. Piercy Award and the Margaret Mann Citation.
Other members of the 2006 Melvil Dewy Award Jury are: Lizbeth Bishoff, University of Colorado at Boulder; Dottie Hiebing, Metropolitan New York Library council; Shirley Loo, Library of Congress, Washington, DC; Monecia T. Samuel, Duke University, Durham, N.C.
The Melvil Dewey Award will be presented Tuesday, June 27, during the ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans.
