The National Federation of Advanced Information Services (NFAIS), a leading membership association for the information services industry, has announced that Tim Collins, President and CEO of EBSCO Industries, has been selected to receive the NFAIS 2015 Miles Conrad Award.
The 2015 Miles Conrad Award, long considered the information industry's premier annual honour for achievement in fostering the growth of information services, is being given to Tim Collins for his long-time leadership role in the information services community and for growing EBSCO Industries into one of the largest private companies in the United States.
Collins has played a vital role in leading the EBSCO Information Services division's growth from a provider of print indexes in the 1980s into one of the world's leading for-fee internet research services, serving the research needs of a variety of organisations including educational institutions and public libraries. Now, President and CEO of the EBSCO's parent company, Collins oversees more than 40 divisions with more than 5,000 employees and $2.4 billion in annual revenue.
Collins, who will be honoured at the NFAIS 2015 Annual Conference, February 22-24, 2015, in Crystal City, VA, also will deliver the annual Miles Conrad Memorial Lecture at the conference. Collins will talk about the story behind his 30-year journey building EBSCO Information Services into one of the globe's preeminent discovery service and online research content providers as well as provide a look into what he believes the future holds for information services.
The NFAIS Miles Conrad Award and Memorial Lecture are named in honour of G. Miles Conrad (1911-1964), a co-founder of NFAIS. Conrad, a former president of BIOSIS, had an early grasp of the potential of computer technology when applied to the creation, organization and dissemination of research information. The Miles Conrad Lecturers are industry leaders, innovators and opinion-makers representing the full breadth of the information services community.
Recent past winners of the Miles Conrad Award include Marjorie M.K. Hlava, President, Access Innovations, Inc.; Robert N. Snyder, Chairman, Cambridge Information Group; Dame Lynne Brindley, Chief Executive, The British Library; and Donald A.B. Lindberg, National Library of Medicine.
