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CHICAGO - The Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS) has named Peter McCracken the 2011 recipient of the Ulrich’s Serials Librarianship Award. This award for distinguished contributions to serials, presented by the Continuing Resources Section of ALCTS, consists of a citation and $1,500 donated by ProQuest through its Serials Solutions business unit.

Peter McCracken, currently the creator/publisher of , has made extraordinarily distinguished contributions to the field of serials librarianship, the serials information chain and serials standards. Among his innovations are vast improvements in electronic serials content management and the creation of a variety of revolutionary automated services that support library and user access to serials on the Web. His numerous presentations at meetings and conferences, exceptional participation in the setting of industry standards, important publications in the serials literature and ongoing contributions to professional organizations worldwide set him apart as a creative leader and a critical thinker in our discipline.

His impact on the library industry has been both transformative and visionary.

He came to believe that it would be more cost-effective and efficient for libraries to outsource the management of e-journals than to install and maintain software locally and to build and maintain individual e-journal databases. He also recognized the need to ensure the integrity of data – including titles, holdings and links. As a co-founder of Serials Solutions and director of electronic content management, he quickly understood that “cloud” software and shared data would enable libraries to effectively manage their ever-growing electronic journal collections. His original A-Z list proved to be so useful that the knowledgebase it is built on serves as the “engine” for a range of other products, including a link resolver, an electronic resource access and management system, an overlap analysis tool and a single unified index Web scale discovery service.

McCracken became a valuable advocate for and contributor to initiatives such as SUSHI (Standardized Usage Statistics Harvesting Initiative), the Open URL standard that enables linking between tools and resources on the Web, and the NISO/ALPSP Journal Article Versions working group that examined problems associated with the proliferation of different versions of journal articles.

In 2006, Serials Solutions became active in CONSER, participating in the development of the CONSER Standard Record that applies to all formats of serials and is intended to reduce cataloging costs. His support for OpenURL and accurate knowledgebases led him to collaborate with the United Kingdom Serials Group as co-chair of the joint NISO/UKSG KBART (Knowledge Bases and Related Tools) Working Group developing recommended practices for standardizing the transfer of data within and among information supply chain participants.

He is recognized for his contributions to the development of tools and methods, his demonstrated leadership and scholarship, his involvement in the development and implementation of standards and his current endeavor in developing a world-class knowledgebase, all of which have enriched the intellectual life of the profession and immeasurably improved access and understanding of the digital serials environment for librarians and end users.

The is the national association for information providers who work in collection 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.