Access Innovations, Inc. is pleased to announce that its president and founder, Marjorie M.K. Hlava, has been named the recipient of the highest honor given by the Special Libraries Association (SLA), the John Cotton Dana Award.
Named for the founder and original president of SLA, this prestigious honor recognizes a lifetime of achievement in the field of library science and exceptional service to the association and to the field at large. Hlava, a Fellow of the association, served on the SLA Board of Directors from 1990 through 1992, received the President’s Award for her outstanding service to the organization in 2000, and has received multiple honors over the years for her work in the industry.
“Marjorie Hlava personifies the spirit of innovation and the commitment to professionalism that were hallmarks of John Cotton Dana’s career, and it is fitting that she should receive SLA’s highest honor,” said SLA 2015 President Jill Strand. “She has been a mentor, a leader, and a friend to many information professionals over the course of her career, and I look forward to seeing her receive the Dana Award in Boston.”
A member of SLA since 1976, she has served on many committees on the board, chapter, and division levels. She was co-creator and served as Chair of the Taxonomy Division and chaired the Nominations and Professional Development Committees therein. Additionally, she served as Chair of the Information Technology Division and, within that, served on the Executive, Nominations, and Networking Committees, as well as serving as the Division Archivist.
On the Association Level, Hlava served as Director at Large of the Board of Directors, chaired the DACOLT, Long Range Plan, Non-Serial Publication Review, Directory, Technical Standards, and Bylaws Committees, as well as serving on the Bylaws and Finance Committees. Additionally, she served as the SLA voting representative to the National Information Standards Organization (NISO), created and implemented the SLA thesaurus and taxonomy, and consulted on the redesign of the SLA website navigation system.
Her Chapter activities have included serving as Rio Grande Chapter President and Vice President and chaired the Special Projects, Employment, Membership, Career Counselor, and Nominations Committees, in addition to numerous other roles at the Chapter Level.
“I am surprised, delighted, and humbled by this honor,” commented Ms. Hlava. “I have always enjoyed my years of service to SLA and found the meetings and presentations a springboard for new ideas. The insights gained from networking with other members have fueled my desire to undertake new (and sometimes daring!) developments with my company’s software and services. These conversations have often helped find creative ways to address the applications of information science and its challenges. I look forward to many more years of continued involvement in SLA.”
For over 40 years, Hlava has been a thought leader in library and information science. She is well known internationally for her work in the implementation of information science principles and the technology and standards that support them. She has served as the president of a number of industry associations, including the National Federation of Advanced Information Services (NFAIS) and the Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T). Hlava is the author of The Taxobook (Morgan & Claypool, 2014-2015), a three-volume book series on taxonomies and thesauri. She is now developing ontological structures to serve linked data, which she feels is the future of semantics and information science.
The presentation of the John Cotton Dana Award will take place at the SLA 205 Annual Conference in Boston, Massachusetts on June 14, 2015. In addition to receiving the award, Hlava will conduct a workshop on advanced taxonomy concepts at the conference.
About Access Innovations, Inc. – www.accessinn.com, www.dataharmony.com, www.taxodiary.com
Access Innovations has extensive experience with Internet technology applications, master data management, database creation, thesaurus/taxonomy creation, and semantic integration. Access Innovations’ Data Harmony software includes machine aided indexing, thesaurus management, an XML Intranet System (XIS), and metadata extraction for content creation developed to meet production environment needs. Data Harmony is used by publishers, governments, and corporate clients throughout the world.
About SLA – www.sla.org
The Special Libraries Association is the global organization for innovative information professionals and their strategic partners that promotes and strengthens its members through learning, advocacy, and networking initiatives. SLA is a nonprofit corporation incorporated in the State of New York and organized for the purpose of “provid[ing] an association of individuals and organizations having a professional interest in the strategic use of information.” SLA is organized into 56 regional chapters and 26 divisions representing subject interests, fields, or types of information-handling techniques.
