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OCLC Founder Frederick G. Kilgour Dies at 92Frederick G. Kilgour, founder of the OCLC Online Computer Library Center, died July 31 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, at age 92.The Ohio College Association hired Kilgour in 1967 to establish a computerized library network on the Ohio State University campus in Columbus that became known as the Ohio College Library Center. In 1971 the nonprofit corporation introduced a shared cataloging system for 54 academic libraries in the state. Today OCLC’s WorldCat database contains over 70 million entries with more than 9,000 institutions as members. Kilgour served as OCLC president from 1967 to 1980. After he stepped down from management in 1981 he continued to serve on the OCLC board of trustees until 1995. In 1990, he was named Distinguished Research Professor of the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and served on the faculty until his retirement in 2004. Before founding OCLC, Kilgour had been an academic librarian and historian of science and technology at Harvard and Yale for 30 years. “Fred Kilgour lived a rich life that was full of accomplishment,” said OCLC President and CEO Jay Jordan. “He leaves us with a great legacy and an exciting future. His innovations have vastly increased the availability of library resources for millions of people around the world. His vision continues to influence the evolution of research, scholarship, and education in the digital age.” Posted August 1, 2006. |
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