Note: See end of story for photo availability, event details

International library group honors Kilgour with $100,000 donation to UNC school

CHAPEL HILL – Dr. Frederick G. Kilgour, a distinguished research professor in the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was honored with much more than a celebration upon turning 90 today (Jan. 6).

Visiting representatives of OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. – which Kilgour served as its first and pivotal president – surprised him with a $100,000 gift to the school in his honor. The gift was announced at a celebration of Kilgour’s birthday at 5 p.m. today (Jan. 6) in Wilson Library.

Speakers on Kilgour’s life, career and contributions to librarianship included William Crowe, Spencer librarian at the University of Kansas and chair of the center’s board of trustees; Jay Jordan, center president and chief executive officer; Dr. Joanne Marshall, dean of the UNC school; and Dr. Joe Hewitt, UNC associate provost and university librarian.

The gift will establish an annual OCLC/Frederick G. Kilgour Lecture in Information and Library Science. It counts toward the Carolina First campaign goal of $1.8 billion. Carolina First is a comprehensive multi-year, private fund-raising campaign to support Carolina’s vision of becoming the nation’s leading public university.

Kilgour is known among educators and librarians for founding the Ohio College Library Center in 1967, the first computerized library network. As the center’s first president, from 1967 to 1980, he oversaw its growth from a statewide computer system for 54 Ohio colleges to an international network, which makes up the renamed center today. The expanded center is a nonprofit, membership computer library service and research organization dedicated to furthering access to the world’s information and reducing library costs.

More than 45,000 libraries in 84 countries and territories use the center’s services to find, acquire, catalog, lend and preserve library materials. Researchers, students and faculty use the services to obtain bibliographic, abstract and textual information. The center and its member libraries cooperatively produce and maintain WorldCat, a digital catalog of library holdings around the world that is one of the most consulted databases in higher education.

Kilgour was awarded the American Library Association’s highest honor, Honorary Life Membership, in 1982 for his contributions to librarianship, including "the establishment and development of a practical vehicle for making the benefits of technology readily available to thousands of libraries." He came to Carolina in 1986.

Before joining OCLC, Kilgour was a librarian and library director at Harvard and Yale universities for nearly 25 years. As a U.S. Navy intelligence officer During World War II, he developed a system for obtaining publications from enemy and enemy-occupied areas, for which he received the Legion of Merit.

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Note: Media representatives are welcome at the celebration, at 5 p.m. today (Jan. 6) in Wilson Library. A photo of Kilgour at the event will be available Wednesday (Jan. 7) on request from Catherine Lazorko of the UNC School of Information and Library Science at (919) 843-8337, lazorko@unc.edu

News Services contact: L.J. Toler, (919) 962-8589