91´«Ã½

CHICAGO—The Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS) congratulates the recipient of the 2017 Ulrich’s Serials Librarianship Award, Robert Bremer. Presented by the of ALCTS, this award consists of a citation and $1,500 donated by and is given for distinguished contributions to serials librarianship. The award will be presented at the ALCTS Awards Ceremony on June 24, 2017, during the 2017 91´«Ã½ Annual Conference and Exhibition in Chicago.

Bremer, senior consulting database specialist at OCLC, has been described as an unsung hero in the serials world. Throughout his long, distinguished career, Bremer has been committed to the goals of cooperative metadata creation. He has been OCLC’s liaison to CONSER since the beginning of the Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC) and has chaired or served on numerous PCC task groups, committees and projects. Robert has also been willing to share his knowledge and expertise with others. Not only has he helped serials catalogers with their day to day jobs, he has worked with and trained many of the database specialists at OCLC in serials cataloging and content designation.

In 2002, serials catalogers from the Library of Congress, CONSER and OCLC began a project to find a practical solution to the growing number of MARC records that resulted from the then current cataloging practice considering each “aggregator/publisher/distributor” of online content to be a separate edition. Bremer was the chair of the task group that developed the provider neutral record practices for online serials that resulted in the “PCC Provider-Neutral Standard.” After the standard was implemented, he was then responsible for working out the merger of thousands of serials records. Another notable contribution to the serials community has been his work with OCLC macros. These macros, especially the “Insert from cited record,” have made cataloging more efficient for a multitude of catalogers. He was also responsible for the development of a macro that creates complete online serial records from existing print serial records. In consultation with colleagues, Bremer designed a project to add RDA elements into pre-RDA records in WorldCat. This project not only created hybrid records, it also greatly improved the WorldCat database by correcting many other errors and validation problems. This project alone has improved over 150 million WorldCat records.

CRS is pleased to recognize the significant accomplishments and contributions of Bremer, whose work has made a profound impact on serials librarianship, as well as current and future library professionals.

The (ALCTS) is the national association for information providers who work in collections and technical services, such as acquisitions, cataloging, collection development, preservation and continuing resources in digital and print formats. ALCTS is a division of the 91´«Ã½.