Henderson Lecture to explore evolution of shared information resources

Dr. Herbert Van de Sompel

Dr. Fred Kilgour

The evolution of shared information resources will be discussed by the pioneer of the interlibrary loan system and an information scientist who is leading the next wave of digital sharing at the Henderson Lecture, a free and open program of the UNC at Chapel Hill School of Information and Library Science.

The lecture is scheduled from 9:30 to 11 a.m. Nov. 21 in the Pleasants Family Assembly Room of the Wilson Library at UNC at Chapel Hill. A reception will precede the lecture at 9 a.m.

Sharing unique historical perspectives in the discussion titled “Sharing Library Resources: From Online Computer Library Center to Open Archives Protocol for Metadata Harvesting” are Dr. Fred Kilgour, a Distinguished Research Professor in the School of Information and Library Science, and Dr. Herbert Van de Sompel, team leader of the Digital Library Research and Prototyping Team at the Research Library of the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

The annual Henderson Lecture was established in 1990 to honor the memory of Lucile Kelling Henderson, faculty member (1932-1960) and dean (1954-1960) of what was then known as the School of Library Science.

Dr. Kilgour founded the Ohio College Library Center (OCLC: a dozen years later the name was changed to Online Computer Library Center) in 1967. Before this milestone, he worked as a librarian and library director at Harvard and Yale universities for nearly 25 years. During World War II, he was a U.S. Navy intelligence officer in the Office of Strategic Services, where he developed a system for obtaining publications from enemy and enemy-occupied areas, and for which he received the Legion of Merit.

Dr. Kilgour led OCLC from 1967 to 1980, presiding over its spectacular growth from an intrastate network to a national network. During his tenure, OCLC grew from a staff of two and revenues of $67,000, to a staff of 500 and revenues of $27 million. The number of libraries OCLC served grew from the original 54 Ohio academic libraries to 2,300 libraries in all 50 states. The number of records in WorldCat grew from the ground up to five million.

Dr. Van de Sompel has played a major role in creating the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting, the OpenURL Framework for Context-Sensitive Services, and the SFX linking server. He graduated in mathematics and computer science from Ghent University in Belgium, and in 2000 obtained a Ph.D. there. For many years, he was head of Library Automation at Ghent University. Before coming to Los Alamos, he was a visiting professor in computer science at Cornell University and director of e-Strategy and Programmes at the British Library.

A symposium is scheduled for 1 to 3:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 21, in Room 314 of Manning Hall. Persons interested in attending the symposium may contact Dr. Gary Marchionini, professor of information and library science at the UNC at Chapel Hill School of Information and Library Science, at march@ils.unc.edu or (919) 966-3611.