San Francisco Public Library and King County Library System share 2004 WebFeat Presidents Award for Innovation

Award winners "push the envelope" in federated search design serving millions of library patrons

Old Brookville, N.Y., March 22, 2004 - On February 26, 2004, at a dinner ceremony held during the Public Library Associations 10th National Conference in Seattle, Washington, WebFeat President and CEO, Todd Miller, presented the WebFeat Presidents Award for Innovation jointly to the King County Library System, serving the Puget Sound area of Washington, and the San Francisco Public Library.

As Miller noted in his presentation remarks, King County and San Francisco were chosen from among 14 nominees for "bold innovation in the design of their federated search interface and functionality. WebFeat systems are custom configured in partnership with client libraries, and each system offers an array of features and user ergonomics that meet the specific needs of each community. This year, King County Library System and San Francisco Public Library pushed the federated search envelope, designing systems that other libraries across the country now use as models for federated search best practices."

Accepting the WebFeat Presidents Award on behalf of their libraries were Jed Moffitt, Associate Director for Information Technology Services, King County Library System, and Cathy Nyhan, Electronic Services Manager, San Francisco Public Library.

In addition to the co-recipients, the dinner honored the other nominees, including the public libraries of Boston, Buffalo and Erie County, Cleveland, Denver, Deschutes, Evansville Vanderburgh, Houston, Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, Toledo Lucas County, as well as The Free Library of Philadelphia, Oregon State Library, and the Southeast Florida Library Information Network. Award nominees represent the most recent group of top innovators among the more than 1,000 leading public, academic, and government libraries that use WebFeat, including over half of the nations 20 largest public libraries.

Concluding his remarks, Miller said, "The state-of-the-art information systems at King County and San Francisco are the product of a unique partnership between the library and a technology partner. They demonstrate what is possible when the vendor listens to its clients."

Both King County and San Francisco offer WebFeat-powered federated searching of over 70 databases. For information about King County Library System, visit http://www.kcls.org. For more about San Francisco Public Library, visit http://www.sfpl.org.

About WebFeat
WebFeat (US patent #6,807,539) is the developer of the WebFeat Prism, used by over 1,500 leading public, academic, government and Global 1000 libraries and information centers—including over half of the top 20 largest U.S. public libraries and one out of every 10 Association of Research Libraries (ARL) institutions.

WebFeat’s latest release, WebFeat 3, offers a suite of next-generation metasearch tools, the SMART™ COUNTER-compliant usage tracker, and MyWebFeat™ personalized metasearch system. Originally founded in 1992 as an information technology consultancy, WebFeat has earned industry recognition from leading organizations such as the Gartner Group and Library Journal. Learn more about WebFeat at www.webfeat.org.