By: Lynne W. Scanlon

Lynne W. Scanlon — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 23:48:17 +0000

Amazing Worldcat.org Database Locates Books, CDs, Videos in Nearest Library! Will You Buy or Will You Borrow? Pioneering Librarian, Frederick G Kilgour, Dead at 92

http://www.thepublishingcontrarian.com

By: Dave Tyckoson

Dave Tyckoson — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 23:09:19 +0000

This has indeed been a time of loss. We are literally seeing the passing of a generation of leaders in library techical services. In the past three years, we have lost:

April 5, 2003. Seymour Lubetzky, author of the Cataloging Rules, Paris Principles, and original AACR. He literally wrote the rules that define the modern catalog.

April 22, 2006. Henriette Avram, who created the MARC record as a means of transmitting catalog records electronically. Her work created the foundation on which many of our library systems are still based.

July 31, 2006. Fred Kilgour, who used those MARC records to build the first cooperative shared cataloging database. This innovative idea has since spread to become the world’s largest union catalog. It is used not only to share cataloging records, but through the ILL subsystem, to share the resources themselves.

Leslie Burger, President of ALA, is starting a new program called “Emerging Leaders.” I am certain that the next generation of Lubetzkys, Avrams, and Kilgours is out there working on innovations that will advance our field even further. Some of you reading Walt’s blog will no doubt step in to take their place. If you are interested, take a look at:

http://lb.princetonlibrary.org/emerging_leaders.html

Comments on: Frederick G. Kilgour, RIP

By: Lynne W. Scanlon

By: Dave Tyckoson