2007 LITA/Brett Butler Entrepreneurship Award winner announced
Contact: Mary Taylor
LITA
312-280-4267
mtaylor@ala.org
For Immediate Release
March 23, 2007
2007 LITA/Brett Butler Entrepreneurship Award winner announced
CHICAGO - Annette Bailey, digital assets librarian at the Virginia Tech University Libraries, and Godmar Back, assistant professor in Virginia Tech Computer Science Department, are the 2007 recipients of the LITA/Brett Butler Entrepreneurship Award. In summer 2005, they jointly developed an open source Firefox browser extension, LibX. LibX delivers library resources to users by seamlessly integrating access to them into the Firefox browser.
“LibX was conceived to solve an obvious problem that many librarians identify. Library patrons are bypassing the library’s collections in favor of search engines to find web-based resources, at the expense of discovering library-owned scholarly and peer-reviewed resources,” commented Leslie O’Brien and Mary Finn at Virginia Tech University Libraries, who nominated Bailey and Back for the award.
With features such as a toolbar for direct access to the library catalog, context menus dynamically adapting to what the user has selected on a page, and OpenURL support, LibX places access to library resources in a user’s “webflow” and makes it easy for users to discover resources in the library. Libraries can adapt LibX and create specific editions for their own use. According to the LibX website (http://libx.org/), currently 44 academic and public libraries are offering LibX editions to their users and 77 additional libraries are testing editions. Bailey and Back have received the IMLS National Leadership Grant to support the ongoing development of LibX. Future development plans include creating a plug-in for Internet Explorer.
“LibX is a creative use of browser extension technology for library applications which enhances the delivery of library resources to end users,” said Janet Lee-Smeltzer, chair of the award committee. “The committee selected Ms. Bailey and Dr. Back for the 2007 award for their exemplary innovation in the use of technology and entrepreneurship in developing LibX.”
The LITA/Brett Butler Entrepreneurship Award recognizes exemplary entrepreneurship by providing an innovative product or service designed to meet the needs of the library world. Sponsored by Thomson Gale and the Library and Information Technology Association (LITA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), the award includes a check for $5,000 and a certificate of recognition. The award will be presented at the LITA President’s Program on Sunday, June 24, 2007, at the ALA Annual Conference in Washington D.C.
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.
