12 Dececmber 2024
At the KMWorld conference in November 2024, Marjorie (Margie) M. K. Hlava, Chief Science Officer of Access Innovations, Inc., was presented with the inaugural KM Community Award. The award is given annually by KMWorld, to an individual or individuals who have made meaningful contributions to the common good of the knowledge management and the information industry through volunteerism, research, published works, and/or project management.
The award was presented at the KMWorld Awards luncheon on November 21, 2024, by David Clarke, EVP of Semantic Graph Technology for Squirro.
“Margie has been a constant contributor to the field since I first met her many years ago,” commented Tom Hogan Sr., President of Information Today, which hosts the meeting. “She is a perfect representation of what this award means.”
“Firstly, thank you to Information Today for creating this new award to recognize people who have made an exceptional contribution to the KM Community,’ said David Clarke, EVP of Semantic Graph Technology for Squirro. “It gives me great pleasure to present the 2024 award. The recipient is a person who has been contributing her unparalleled expertise to the information standards community for over four decades. Margie Hlava is the Founder and Chief Scientist at Access Innovations, a taxonomy-ontology and machine-aided indexing software solution.
“Margie is the holder of two patents and has over 2,000 engagements and 600 taxonomies under her belt. Margie was the founding Chair of the Special Libraries Association’s Taxonomy Division. ASIS&T (Association for Information Science and Technology) has acknowledged Margie with Fellowship and the Award of Merit; SLA with the John Cotton Dana Award; and three years ago, she was inducted into the Hubbell Hall of Fame.
“I know Margie as a direct competitor in the realm of taxonomy software, but I also know Margie as a colleague and friend in the realm of industry standards,” continued Clarke. “The great thing about industry standards is people from many diverse organizations around the world come together to collaborate, to share insights, and methodically to capture the distilled wisdom of an entire community. On the standards committees that I have served, there are usually many participants, a smaller number of contributors, and then there is perhaps just one person whose leadership and exceptional dedication to the cause, brings everyone together, makes it all happen, and delivers the industry standards that we all benefit from. Margie Hlava has been that one person. The person whose exceptional contribution has brought us standards that are central to how we do knowledge organization, standards like ANSI-NISO Z39.19 – the US bible for controlled vocabularies, and ISO 25964 – its international equivalent – currently under revision, with Margie at the helm.
“These are only two examples that I have selected from a list of information community projects that Margie has led or contributed to, which span many information science organizations – ASIS&T, ISO, ANSI, NISO, NFAIS, Dublin Core, SLA, and many years, starting from 1978 – 46 years ago – to the present day. Margie, the KM Community is deeply indebted to you for your inestimable contribution.”
“I am honored and humbled by the receipt of this award. I have enjoyed every step of my journey and look forward to continuing it for years to come,” said Hlava.