Bowdoin College, Brooklyn Public Library, Cuyahoga County Public Library, Dartmouth College, INCOLSA, Northumbria University, and Queens Library win 2007 WebFeat President’s Awards for Innovation

Libraries receive top honors for innovative federated search systems

Old Brookville, NY, January 26, 2007— Seven leading libraries have been recognized for innovation in their information systems with the 2007 WebFeat Presidents Award for Innovation. Bowdoin College, Dartmouth College and Northumbria University received top honors in the academic library category; Brooklyn Public Library, Cuyahoga County Public Library and Queens Library won the awards in the public library category; while INCOLSA won the award for top multi-library system for its INSPIRE service (Indiana’s Online Research Library). The WebFeat President’s Awards for Innovation recognize innovation in design and function in WebFeat clients’ state-of-the-art information systems.

The awards were presented at a special dinner ceremony held during the 2007 ALA Midwinter Meeting in Seattle, Washington. 4th annual awards festivities took place January 20th with a private affair at Seattle’s renowned Cascadia Restaurant. Accepting the WebFeat President’s Awards on behalf of their respective libraries were: Sherrie Bergman, University Librarian, Bowdoin College with Judy Montgomery, Associate Director, Bowdoin College; Anne Candreva, Chief Information Officer, Brooklyn Public Library with Sheryl Katzen, Electronic Resources Specialist, Brooklyn Public Library; Sari Feldman, Executive Director, Cuyahoga County Public Library; Mary LaMarca, Library Communications and Web Manager, Dartmouth College; Margaret Mohundro, Director, INSPIRE; David Chesser, Deputy Vice Chancellor, Northumbria University with Professor Jane Core, Director of Library and Learning Services, Northumbria University; and Mary Catherine Little, Director of Technical Services, Queens Library.

Bowdoin College, Brooklyn Public Library, Cuyahoga County Public Library, Dartmouth College, INCOLSA, Northumbria University and Queens Library were chosen from among 30 nominees for bold innovation in the design of their federated search interfaces and functionality, as well as for the quality of integration of WebFeat with the libraries’ existing web pages.

"It was especially difficult to select this year’s winners from the nominees," noted WebFeat President Todd Miller, "The nominees represent the best of the best of WebFeat implementations, pushing the envelope on WebFeat technology for the benefit of their users."

In addition to the award recipients, the dinner honored all nominees, including Allegany County Library System, Bethel University, Brigham Young University, Columbus Metropolitan Library, Cornell University, Drake University, Gwinnett County Public Library, Hawaii State Public Library System, Illinois State University, King County Library System, Las Vegas Clark County Library District, LINC (Library Integrated Network Consortium – Illinois), LOUIS: The Louisiana Library Network, Louisiana State University, Northern Arizona University, Phoenix Public Library, Pima County Public Library, Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County, SEFLIN (Southeast Florida Library Information Network), SUNY, New Paltz, Tacoma Public Library, and the University of Southern California. Award nominees represent the most recent group of top innovators among the more than 5,000 leading public, academic, government and Global 1000 libraries and information centers that use WebFeat.

To view photos of this event, visit: http://webfeat.org/award/dinner2007.htm

For more information about the Bowdoin College Library and Cast-a-Net powered by WebFeat visit http://library.bowdoin.edu/.

For more information about Brooklyn Public Library and Brooklyn info Bridge powered by WebFeat visit http://www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org.

For more information on Cuyahoga County Public Library and the Find Engine powered by WebFeat visit http://www.cuyahogalibrary.org/.

For more information on Dartmouth College Library and Search 360 powered by WebFeat visit http://library.dartmouth.edu/.

For more information on INCOLSA or INSPIRE visit http://www.incolsa.net.

For information on Northumbria University Library and NORA powered by WebFeat visit http://northumbria.ac.uk/sd/central/library/.

For information on Queens Library visit http://queenslibrary.org.

Past winners of the WebFeat President’s Awards for Innovation include: Chicago Public Library, Denver Public Library, GALILEO, King County Library System, Princeton University, OPLIN, San Francisco Public Library, SEFLIN, the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Pittsburgh.

About WebFeat
WebFeat (U.S. patent #6,807,539) is the developer of the WEBFEAT™ and WebFeat Express™ Search Prisms, used by over 5,000 leading public, academic, government and Global 1000 libraries and information centers—including over half of the 20 largest U.S. public libraries, 16 statewide library systems, and 2 out of every 10 Association of Research Libraries (ARL) institutions.

WebFeat offers next-generation federated search tools to meet the needs of any library. Products include: The WebFeat Custom and WebFeat Express search prisms, WebFeat Enterprise Edition for multi-library networks and SMART™, WebFeat’s usage tracker. The WebFeat Express International Edition supports 7 languages, enabling users to dynamically change language displays. Originally founded in 1992 as an information technology consultancy, WebFeat has earned industry recognition from leading organizations such as Library Journal and the Gartner Group. Learn more about WebFeat at http://www.webfeat.org.