The judges also awarded commendations of merit to Harvard Law Library’s LibraryCloud and StackLife and the National Institute for Informatics’ JAIRO Cloud.
Established last year by Stanford Libraries, SPIRL showcases the programs, projects, and/or new or improved services that benefit readers and users. “One of the many reasons we decided to conduct this prize competition was to make it possible for really innovative libraries to get some much deserved attention to their most advanced work,” said Michael Keller, university librarian at Stanford.
Elisabeth Niggemann, director general of the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, chaired the international panel of judges, who included, Dame Lynne Brindley, master of Pembroke College, Oxford; Charles Henry, president of the Council on Library and Information Resources; Richard Luce, university librarian, dean, and associate vice provost for research at the University of Oklahoma; Ann Okerson, senior advisor for electronic strategies of the Center for Research Libraries; Bruno Racine, president of the Bibliothèque nationale de France and recipient of the 2013 SPIRL prize; Dr. Dongfang Shao, chief of the Asia Division of the Library of Congress; and Karin Wittenborg, university librarian at the University of Virginia.