Milne librarian receives prestigious award

Ed Rivenburgh, Milne Library's Information Delivery Services project director and former library director, was recently honored with the 2011 Virginia Boucher/Online Computer Library Center Distinguished Inter-Library Loan Librarian Award.

The Virginia Boucher/OCLC Distinguished ILL Librarian Award recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions to the fields of interlibrary loan and document delivery among other outstanding professional achievements.

Rivenburgh and 11 librarians created the IDS program in 2004. IDS allows the students and faculty of 65 New York libraries and others across the country to share nearly 36 million volumes.

The project streamlined the process of inter-library loaning and ensured that students could receive electronic articles by email within 48 hours of a request and books within 72 hours.

"There is no original membership fee or annual fee [for libraries to participate in IDS], so all of this is being done because library directors and librarians and support staff all decided to work together," Rivenburgh said. He credits the volunteer services of IDS members across the state and country with the project's success.

"This award that I received is not really for me at all, it's for the project and all the incredible people … who have given so much time and talent to accomplish what we have," Rivenburgh said. "The money that we will receive as a part of this award, we will invest right back into the project."

In his career, Rivenburgh has received numerous professional achievement awards including the Ray Murray Award from the New York State Library Assistants' Association, the Nylink Achievement Award and, most recently, the Friend of State University of New York Librarian's Association award. He holds a master's degree in library science from Simmons College, a master's in education from Michigan State University and a certificate of advanced graduate studies in education from Boston University.

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