This award represents the greatest recognition and respect to professionals for their outstanding contributions in developing and promoting LIS education in Europe. The award was formally institutionalized through a decision by the Board in 2006. Since then every year the Board nominates and votes a candidate. The winner is announced  and the award is presented at the closing ceremony of the Bobcatsss Symposium.

Winners of BOBCAT of the year Award

BOBCAT of the 2014 – Niels Ole Pors

It was awarded post mortem to Professor Niels Ole Pors Niels Ole Pors who died unexpectedly on 20 March, 2013. He was a full professor at the Royal School of Library and Information Science and is credited with assisting in the establishing of University Degrees in LIS at the Bachelor‟s, Master‟s and PhD levels. He was a dedicated researcher with numerous publication in the field. From 2001 through 2009, he served as a member of the IFLA Education and Training Section.

BOBCAT of the 2013 – Linda Ashcroft

It was awarded post mortem to Dr Linda Ashcroft formerly Reader of Information Management, John Moores University for almost twenty years from 1992 until her retirement in December 2010. She was Programme Leader for the MA Information and Library Management (1996-2005) and she made a valuable contribution to learning and research within the University. She was an active member of School and Faculty Research Committees. Her research interests lay mainly in the fields of resource management and public relations and she was a member of both the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals and the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.

Dr. Ashcroft’s professional involvement, international activity and research work were wide- ranging.  She served for some years as a Committee Member of several sections of IFLA and was Chair of BAILER (British Association for Information and Library Education and Research) from 1996-2004. She was the recipient of grants for many significant research projects. She edited the international journal New Library World from 1993. Her publications: conference papers, research reports, contributions to monographs and journal articles are too numerous to mention.

Alongside all her research activity, she was committed to her teaching. She was a module leader for a range of modules and made important contributions to programme development.

BOBCAT of the 2012 – Jelke Nijboer

Jelke Nijboer (Netherlands) has been involved in BOBCATSSS for two decades. He organized with the founding father of BOBCATSSS, Dr. Ruud Bruyns, the first conferences in Budapest. In 2003 he coordinated with the Copernicus University (Torun, Poland) a successful BOBCATSSS conference about Information Policy in the EU. Together with Stuttgart Media University he was responsible for the organization of the 20th anniversary of  BOBCATSSS (Information in e-Motion) in Amsterdam. He is a regular contributor of papers and workshops at BOBCATSSS, of which a number of BOBCATSSS papers have been published in the peer-review journal New Library World. His keynote ‘From static bookshelves to mobile communication; two decades of BOBCATSSS developments’ (2012) gives a short history of the BOBCATSSS conferences. He is also a regular contributor to Dutch journals. He served one term on the EUCLID Board (2011-2014).

He holds a degree in business economics (Groningen) and a post graduate degree in information science (The Hague). He started his professional career in the seventies in market research, but made a change to the library and information field after he graduated in information science. He worked in the eighties as a subject specialist and policy adviser for the public library Amsterdam. From 1991 till 2002 he was senior lecturer in information and knowledge management at the Institute of Media and Information Management (MIM) in Amsterdam. From 2002 till August 2014 he is manager of the section Information and Media of the School of Design and Communication (Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences). He takes retirement in the Fall of 2014.

BOBCAT of the 2011 – Anna Maria Tammaro

Professor at the University of Parma, Rector Delegate for e-learning and local Coordinator of the International Master DILL (Digital Library Learning) Program. She holds a PhD in Information Science from University of Northumbria, MLS in LIS from University of Northumbria, Library Specialisation from University of Rome and Degree in Philosophy from the University of Rome. She is Chair of the IFLA Division IV and a member of IFLA Governing Board.

She has numerous publications on LIS education İncluding a curriculum design for digital libraries, recognition issues as well as Quality Assurance of the educational programs, and user perception on digital services.

Dr. Tammaro has been engaged in EUCLID for many years and was an active member of the EUCLID Board, deeply concerned for the cooperation matters between European LIS schools as well as with the providing best possible education for the librarians from the Third Countries in the framework of Erasmus Mundus. Her contribution to the project and book on European Curriculum Reflections on Library and Information Science Education (edited by Leif Kajberg and Leif Lorring) in 2005 was highly visible and honoured. When EUCLID was in the situation that the BOBCATSSS Symposium might have been cancelled due to the fact that there was no one to organize it in 2010 Anna Maria Tammaro and her team volunteered to host the event in Parma.

BOBCAT of the 2010 – Peter Murányi

Certificate of Advanced Studies in Library Science, Kent State University, Ohio (1990), PhD in Library Science at Eötvös University (2004). Professor and head of Department of the Library and Information Science in the frames of the Institute of Social, International and European Studies University of West Hungary Savaria University Centre. He has been for almost three decades leading contributor to the library and information science education in Szombathely, West Hungary.

In his professional work Peter Murányi has been closely involved in BOBCATSSS organization since its early days. He has been working on a promotion of East-West cooperation in LIS research and education, especially engaged in cooperation of schools from Hungary and Western Europe through professional LIS projects. He contributed to the Hungarian experimentation and adaptation with DECIDOC (since 2000, now Euro Guide LIS) and was involved in development, design and implementation of LIS curriculum for Bachelor and Master degrees in accordance with European LIS curriculum development (from as early as 1994 on, e.g. through the LISTEN TEMPUS project, involving Aberdeen, Copenhagen and Stuttgart, Phare regional cooperation with the LIS School in Eisenstadt, Austria- Burgenland from 1999 on). Through the Bologna process up to now, he was involved and has been supportive for the staff and student mobility exchanges with ERASMUS partners.

He is member of EUCLID, taking actively part in its work, especially in relation to BOBCATSSS activities. He has been representing the LIS school, designated in the last but one ’S’ meaning Szombathely and took part in all symposiums since 1993. He has done his best for the organisation and smoothly running of the BOBCATSSS 2011 symposium, supported by his staff.

BOBCAT of the 2009 – Ragnar A. Audunson

Ragnar Andreas Audunson is professor in library and information science at Oslo University College, Faculty of Journalism, Library and Information Science. He holds a doctoral degree in political science from Oslo University on a dissertation analysing change processes in public libraries. He was a research coordinator of the library research programme of the Norwegian Research Council from December 1997 till the program finished 31st of December 2001 and was elected dean of Faculty at Oslo University College, Faculty of Journalism Library and Information Science August 1994 – August 1997.

At the moment he is directing a research project on the potential of public libraries in promoting social cohesion and integration in multicultural and digital societies (PLACE – Public Libraries, Arenas for Citizenship). He has been involved in an international joint Master programme Digital Libraries and Learning – DILL. He was chairman of the committee on LIS-education in the Library Association of Norway 2002-2008 and member IFLA standing committee on library theory and research since 2001. He become chairman in this IFLA’s standing committee in August 2005.

Ragnar Audunson was active as Board member of NORDIS-NET 1997-2001. (NORDISNET, a Nordic-Baltic network for research education in information science financed by NORFA) and served as member in a committee evaluating Swedish library and information science education (2004) by appointement of the Swedish National Agency for Higher Education. He was also appointed to serve at several evaluating panels for the quality of research (at Lund University, 2008; Tromsø university, 2011) and hes been oponent and tutor for several PhD dissertations.

He is member of the editorial board of Journal of Librarianship and Information Science. Ragnar Audunson was chairman in EUCLID between from 2003 till 2008 during which period a research project was undertaken on curriculum design in LIS field. EUCLID was directly involved in this project and his efforts to include all members of EUCLID into the projects were recognized and appreciated.

BOBCATs of the 2008 – Audronë Glosienë and Tom Wilson

It was awarded post mortem to Audronë Glosienë, the Director General of the Vilnius University Library and Professor of Library and Information science who died on a first day of Bobcatss meeting in Porto after a long lasting fight with cancer. Audronë Glosienë has served in various positions, including head of the Faculty for Library Science (part of the Communications Faculty). She was well known in Europe and the author of numerous papers and involved in planning of a new campus with a second library at this site. As a member of Euclid Board Audronë was very active, innovative, cooperative and a person with whom it was a pleasure and honour to work.

The board of EUCLID has unanimously decided to award the prize BOBCATS of the year for 2008 to Professor Tom D. Wilson. For decades, Professor Wilson has been vital in developing a European community for research and education in library and information science, being an outstanding researcher as well as an outstanding teacher and an entrepreneur. Professor Wilson is probably one of the world’s leading researchers in LIS in general and in information seeking behaviour in particular. He has generously shared his insights with colleagues and students all over Europe and contributed vitally in creating viable research communities and high quality education all over the continent. Professor Wilson is one of the founding fathers of EUCLID, and he played a vital role in the establishment of the ISIC-conference – probably the most important meeting place internationally for researchers in the field of information seeking behaviour. By founding and editing the web-based refereed journal Information Research (http://informationr.net/ir/), he is giving a decisive contribution to open access to high quality research within our field. As a scholar, Professor Wilson is characterized by being constantly on the move intellectually and by a fundamental openness to new perspectives and ideas, thus constantly bringing our field forwards, even after his formal retirement from academic positions. If anyone deserves the title Mr. Library and Information Science in Europe, that person is Professor T. D. Wilson.

BOBCATs of the 2007 – Leif Lørring and Leif Kajberg

At the BOBCATSSS-conference in Prague from January 29 to January 31, Leif Lørring and Leif Kajberg from The Royal School of Library and Information Science were awarded the EUCLID’s BOBCAT of the year prize for outstanding contributions in promoting European library and information science. Lørring’s and Kajberg’s work with the European curriculum development project was particularly mentioned by the jury as one of the main reasons for its decision.

BOBCAT of the 2001- Ruud Bruyns

Founding father of BOBCATSSS