Laura E. Campbell, associate librarian for strategic initiatives and chief information officer for the Library of Congress, recently received the prestigious 2007 EMC Information Leadership Award from the Computerworld Honors Program. The award was presented on June 6 during the 19th Annual Laureates Medal Ceremony and Gala Awards Evening at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington, D.C.
The Computerworld Honors Program (www.cwhonors.org) presents annual leadership awards to honor the extraordinary achievements of individuals who have used information technology to benefit society.
Campbell has led the Library's digital initiatives since late 1998, when she co-chaired the Digital Futures Group, and she has been in charge of the award-winning National Digital Library (NDL) program since its inception in 1994. The flagship of the NDL program is the American Memory Web site (http://memory.loc.gov) of more than 11 million significant items from American history, ranging from papers of U.S. presidents and materials relating to the founding of the nation to the Civil War photographs of Mathew Brady, from Lincoln's Gettysburg Address to the papers of Frederick Douglass. The materials also include early films of Thomas Edison, iconic photographs from the Great Depression, the earliest baseball cards and documents from the civil rights and women's suffrage movements. The materials are in various formats, such as maps, photographs, films and sound recordings.
In 2000, Librarian of Congress James H. Billington appointed Campbell associate librarian for strategic initiatives and chief information officer. At the same time, he asked her to lead the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (www.digitalpreservation.gov) established by Congress. The digital preservation program currently has a collaborative network of 70 partners; it will soon grow to include more than 100 partners from the public and private sectors.
Computerworld (www.computerworld.com) is recognized as a premier source for news, information and opinion on the critical technology and management issues that affect senior technology professionals. Established in 2001, the EMC Information Leadership Award recognizes individuals who have had the insight and ability to harness the repositories of intelligence in their information technology systems and use this knowledge to transform the way their businesses or organizations operate, create innovative products and services, and advance understanding of how the world works.
