Council on Library and Information Resources

Username (email)

Password

CLIR Press Release

NEWS RELEASE

For Immediate Release: May 20, 2002

Contact: Deanna Marcum 202-939-4750

Council on Library and Information Resources Names 2002 A. R. Zipf Fellow

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Deanna Marcum, president of the Council on Library and Information Resources, announced today that the 2002 A. R. Zipf Fellowship in Information Management has been awarded to Miles James Efron, a Ph.D. student in Information Science at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Mr. Efron is the sixth recipient of the Zipf Fellowship, which was established in 1997 to recognize a graduate student who shows exceptional promise for leadership and technical achievement in information management. Mr. Zipf, who passed away on January 1, 2000, had a longstanding interest in helping students and young professionals who pursue training in library science.

Mr. Efron began doctoral study at the University of North Carolina in 2000, after earning an M.S. in Information Science from the same institution, and an A.B. in English from Occidental College in Los Angeles. His research focuses on how statistical methods may be used to map information spaces to enable better access to information. Concurrent with his doctoral studies, Mr. Efron is also senior researcher at www.ibiblio.org, where he conducts research and development of information retrieval technologies for user-maintained digital libraries. He has also recently served as a research assistant on the Tera-scale Retrieval Project, which is creating an open-source suite of software for large-scale information retrieval experimentation.

Kent Smith, chairman of the Zipf Selection Committee, said, "We are very pleased to award this fellowship to Mr. Efron. His exceptional skills and his keen interest in problems of modern information management exemplify the ideals of Mr. Zipf."

A. R. Zipf was a pioneer in information management systems and a guiding force in many of the dramatic technological changes that occurred in the banking industry over the course of his forty-year career with the Bank of America. He was also a great friend and advisor to libraries.

The Council on Library and Information Resources is an independent, nonprofit organization that works to expand access to information, however recorded and preserved, as a public good. In partnership with other organizations, CLIR helps create services that expand the concept of "library" and supports the providers and preservers of information.

# # #