The Award of Merit is bestowed by the Association for Information Science and Technology. [1] It is an annual prize to an individual for a lifetime of achievement that recognizes sustained contributions to and/or achievements in the field of information science and/or the professions in which it is practiced. The Award of Merit was first given in 1964 to Hans Peter Luhn.
Name | Date | Major accomplishments |
---|---|---|
Marcia Lei Zeng | 2024 | Professor of Information Science at Kent State University [2] |
Andrew Dillon | 2023 | V.M. Daniel Professor of Information in the School of Information, University of Texas at Austin. [3] |
Harry Bruce | 2022 | Dean, University of Washington Information School |
Steve Sawyer | 2021 | Editor-in-Chief, Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology . |
Diane H. Sonnenwald | 2020 | Theory Development in the Information Sciences. [4] |
Christine Borgman | 2019 | Big Data, Little Data, No Data: Scholarship in the Networked World [5] |
Toni Carbo | 2018 | Executive Director, National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS) |
Thomas D. Wilson | 2017 | "Fifty Years of Information Behaviour Research." [6] |
Peter Ingwersen | 2016 | The Turn - Integration of Information Seeking and Retrieval in Context. [7] |
Michael E.D. Koenig | 2015 | Knowledge Management (Km) Processes in Organizations: Theoretical Foundations and Practice. [8] |
Marjorie M.K. Hlava | 2014 | President, Access Innovations. [9] |
Carol C. Kuhlthau | 2013 | Guided Inquiry : Learning in the 21st Century. [10] |
Michael Buckland | 2012 | Information and Society. [11] |
Gary Marchionini | 2011 | Information Concepts: From Books to Cyberspace Identities. [12] |
Linda C. Smith | 2010 | Library and Information Science, Interdisciplinary Perspectives: A Festschrift in Honor of Linda C. Smith. [13] |
Carol Tenopir | 2009 | Communication Patterns of Engineers. [14] |
Clifford Lynch | 2008 | Director of the Coalition for Networked Information. |
Donald H. Kraft | 2007 | Operations Research for Libraries and Information Agencies; [15] editor Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology for 24 years. |
Blaise Cronin | 2006 | Dean of the School of Library and Information Science, Indiana University. |
Marcia Bates | 2005 | Encyclopedia of Library and Information Sciences [16] |
Howard D. White | 2004 | “Combining Bibliometrics Information Retrieval and Relevance Theory." [17] |
Nicholas J. Belkin | 2003 | Interaction in Information Systems: A Review of Research from Document Retrieval to Knowledge-Based Systems. [18] |
Karen Spärck Jones | 2002 | "A Statistical Interpretation of Term Specificity and Its Application in Retrieval." [19] |
Patrick G. Wilson | 2001 | Two Kinds of Power; an Essay on Bibliographical Control. [20] |
Donald R. Swanson | 2000 | Swanson Linking; [21] Dean of the University of Chicago Graduate Library School. |
José-Marie Griffiths | 1999 | V.P., board directors, King Research, Inc. |
Henry Small | 1998 | Institute for Scientific Information; Bibliometrics of Basic Research. [22] "Macrolevel changes in the structure of co-citation clusters." [23] |
Dagobert Soergel | 1997 | Best Information Science Book of the Year-1987-Organizing Information: Principles of Data Base and Retrieval Systems. [24] |
Jean Tague-Sutcliffe | 1996 | Measuring Information: An Information Services Perspective. [25] |
Tefko Saracevic | 1995 | “A Study of Information Seeking and Retrieving. III. Searchers Searches and Overlap.” [26] Editor-in Chief Information Processing & Management (1985-2008). |
Harold Borko | 1994 | "Artificial intelligence and expert systems research and their possible impact on information." [27] American Society for Information Science, president 1966. |
Robert M. Hayes | 1993 | Handbook of Data Processing for Libraries. [28] |
Robert Saxton Taylor | 1992 | The Making of a Library; the Academic Library in Transition. [29] “Value-Added Processes in the Information Life Cycle.” [30] |
Roger K. Summit | 1991 | Founder of Dialog Information Services, "father of modern online searching." |
Pauline Atherton Cochrane | 1990 | Papers in Honor of Pauline Atherton Cochrane. [31] One of the most highly cited authors in the field of library and information sciences. [32] |
Gerard Salton | 1989 | Dynamic Information and Library Processing. [33] ACM Fellow. [34] |
F. Wilfrid Lancaster | 1988 | Toward Paperless Information Systems.; [35] Most cited in 1970s- 1990s. [36] |
Donald W. King | 1987 | President of ASIS; Key Papers in the Economics of Information. [37] |
Bernard M. Fry | 1986 | Founding editor, Government Publications Review;Festschrift; [38] Government Publications: Their Role in the National Program for Library and Information Services. [39] |
Robert L. Chartrand | 1985 | "Computer Technology and the Congress." [40] |
Joseph Becker and Martha E. Williams | 1984 | Becker, “Communications Networks for Libraries.” [41] and Williams,“Education and Training for Online Use of Data Bases.” [42] |
Dale B.Baker | 1983 | Director of Chemical Abstracts. [43] |
Andrew A. Aines | 1982 | Director of COSATI [44] |
Herbert S. White | 1981 | Festschrift in Honour of Herbert S. White [45] |
Claire Kelly Schultz | 1980 | President of the American Documentation Institute, 1962."Claire Kelly Schultz (1924-2015)." [46] |
Frederick Kilgour | 1979 | President of OCLC; Legion of Merit for intelligence work during World War II, “History of Library Computerization.”, [47] American Library Association Honorary Membership. |
Calvin Mooers | 1978 | Coined the term "information retrieval." "A Pioneer Of Information Retrieval." [48] |
Allen Kent | 1977 | Best Information Science Book of the Year- 1979-The Structure and Governance of Library Networks.; [49] Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science. [50] |
Laurence Heilprin | 1976 | "Laurence B. Heilprin, 1906-1993. [51] |
Eugene Garfield | 1975 | Founder of bibliometrics and scientometrics and Science Citation Index; A Festschrift in Honor of Eugene Garfield. [52] |
Manfred Kochen | 1974 | Founding Editor of Human Systems Management. [53] |
Jesse Shera | 1973 | Documentation and the organization of knowledge; American Library Association Honorary Membership [54] Papers in honor of Jesse Hauk Shera. [55] |
Phyllis Richmond | 1972 | ‘‘Hierarchical Definition;’’ [56] "The Art and Science of Classification: Phyllis Allen Richmond, 1921–1997." [57] |
Jerrold Orne | 1971 | Chaired Z39 Committee, precursor to National Information Standards Organization, Director University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill libraries and professor of Library Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. [58] [59] |
Cyril W. Cleverdon | 1970 | Cranfield Experiments; "Cyril W. Cleverdon." [60] |
No Award | 1969 | |
Carlos Cuadra | 1968 | Best Information Science Book Award-1969- for Annual Review of Information Science and Technology; “Role of the Private Sector in the Development and Improvement of Library and Information Services." [61] |
Robert Fairthorne | 1967 | "Robert Fairthorne and the Scope of Information Science." [62] “Robert A. Fairthorne, a Biographical Sketch.” [63] |
Mortimer Taube | 1966 | “Theoretical Principles of Information Organization in Librarianship.” [64] "On the Shoulder of Giants." [65] |
Charles P. Bourne | 1965 | “Cost Analysis and Simulation Procedures for the Evaluation of Large Information Systems.” [66] |
Hans Peter Luhn | 1964 | Luhn algorithm; H.P. Luhn: Pioneer of Information Science. [67] |
References
contributions over 30 years to information organization and retrieval
Information retrieval (IR) in computing and information science is the task of identifying and retrieving information system resources that are relevant to an information need. The information need can be specified in the form of a search query. In the case of document retrieval, queries can be based on full-text or other content-based indexing. Information retrieval is the science of searching for information in a document, searching for documents themselves, and also searching for the metadata that describes data, and for databases of texts, images or sounds.
Information science is an academic field which is primarily concerned with analysis, collection, classification, manipulation, storage, retrieval, movement, dissemination, and protection of information. Practitioners within and outside the field study the application and the usage of knowledge in organizations in addition to the interaction between people, organizations, and any existing information systems with the aim of creating, replacing, improving, or understanding the information systems.
Shiyali Ramamrita Ranganathan was a librarian and mathematician from India. His most notable contributions to the field were his five laws of library science and the development of the first major faceted classification system, the colon classification. He is considered to be the father of library science, documentation, and information science in India and is widely known throughout the rest of the world for his fundamental thinking in the field. His birthday is observed every year as National Librarian Day in India.
Eugene Eli Garfield was an American linguist and businessman, one of the founders of bibliometrics and scientometrics. He helped to create Current Contents, Science Citation Index (SCI), Journal Citation Reports, and Index Chemicus, among others, and founded the magazine The Scientist.
The Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) is a nonprofit membership organization for information professionals that sponsors an annual conference as well as several serial publications, including the Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology (JASIST). The organization provides administration and communications support for its various divisions, known as special-interest groups or SIGs; provides administration for geographically defined chapters; connects job seekers with potential employers; and provides organizational support for continuing education programs for information professionals.
Informetrics is the study of quantitative aspects of information, it is an extension and evolution of traditional bibliometrics and scientometrics. Informetrics uses bibliometrics and scientometrics methods to study mainly the problems of literature information management and evaluation of science and technology. Informetrics is an independent discipline that uses quantitative methods from mathematics and statistics to study the process, phenomena, and law of informetrics. Informetrics has gained more attention as it is a common scientific method for academic evaluation, research hotspots in discipline, and trend analysis.
Howard D. White is a scientist in library and information science with a focus on informetrics and scientometrics.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to library and information science:
Jesse Hauk Shera was an American librarian and information scientist who pioneered the use of information technology in libraries and played a role in the expansion of its use in other areas throughout the 1950s, 60s, and 70s.
Library and Information Science (LIS) are two interconnected disciplines that deal with information management. This includes organization, access, collection, and regulation of information, both in physical and digital forms.
Herbert Spencer White was an Austrian-born American librarian. He was Dean Emeritus and Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the School of Library and Information Science at Indiana University, and adjunct professor, University of Arizona, Tucson. He was honored with the Award of Merit - Association for Information Science and Technology and the American Library Association Melvil Dewey Award. He was a contributor to current theory and understanding of the role of the special library in contemporary American organizations.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to information science:
The Information School or iSchool of the University of Sheffield, in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, was founded in 1963 as the University's Postgraduate School of Librarianship and became in 2010 the first UK iSchool. Other names were the Postgraduate School of Librarianship and Information Science and Department of Information Studies (1981-2011). As of 2021, it employs 33 academic staff, 16 administrative/support staff, 6 affiliated research staff, and has about 65 research students. The current head of school is Professor Val Gillet.
Mortimer Taube was an American librarian. He is recognized as one the 100 most important leaders in American Library and Information Science of the 20th century. He was important to the Library Science field because he invented Coordinate Indexing, which uses "uniterms" in the context of cataloging. It is the forerunner to computer based searches. In the early 1950s he started his own company, Documentation, Inc. with Gerald J. Sophar. Previously he worked at such institutions as the Library of Congress, the Department of Defense, and the Atomic Energy Commission. American Libraries calls him "an innovator and inventor, as well as scholar and savvy businessman." Current Biography called him the "Dewey of mid-twentieth Librarianship." Mortimer Taube was a very active man with varying interests such as tennis, philosophy, sailing, music, and collecting paintings.
Frederick Wilfrid ("Wilf") Lancaster was a British-American information scientist. He immigrated to the US in 1959 and worked as information specialist for the National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland, from 1965 to 1968. He was a professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana, from 1972 to 1992 and professor emeritus from 1992 to 2013. He continued as an honored scholar after retirement speaking on the evolution of librarianship in the 20th and 21st century.
A library and information scientist, also known as a library scholar, is a researcher or academic who specializes in the field of library and information science and often participates in scholarly writing about and related to library and information science. A library and information scientist is neither limited to any one subfield of library and information science nor any one particular type of library. These scientists come from all information-related sectors including library and book history.
Blaise Cronin is an Irish-American information scientist and bibliometrician. He is the Rudy Professor Emeritus of Information Science at Indiana University, Bloomington, where he was Dean of the School of Library and Information Science for seventeen years. From 1985 to 1991 he held the Chair of Information Science and was Head of the Department of Information Science at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, U.K.
Claire Kelly Schultz was an American computer consultant and academic. She was a leading figure in the early development of automated information retrieval systems and information science. A "documentalist", she was particularly known for her work in thesaurus construction and machine-aided indexing, innovating techniques for punch card information retrieval.
The ALA Medal of Excellence is an annual award bestowed by the American Library Association for recent creative leadership of high order, particularly in the fields of library management, library training, cataloging and classification, and the tools and techniques of librarianship. It was first awarded in 1953 to Ralph R. Shaw, Director of the National Agriculture Library.