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BOOK INDUSTRY STUDY GROUP
ANNOUNCES ANNUAL INDUSTRY AWARDS WINNERS

New York, NY– The Book Industry Study Group (BISG) is pleased to announce the winners of its Industry Awards, presented at its 2015 Annual Meeting of Members on September 18, 2015. The categories were Industry Innovation, Most Valuable BISG Volunteer, Industry Champion, and Lifetime Service.

  • The Industry Innovation Award recognizes a company or individual who boldly re-imagines what publishing is and can be. Trajectory‘s multi-lingual discovery solutions, metadata enrichment, and audience development is designed to facilitate global trade for the international publishing industry. Trajectory has developed and deployed a series of algorithms that are being used to address the ‘book discoverability’ issue facing the global publishing ecosystem.
  • The Most Valuable BISG Volunteer Award honors the recipient’s commitment to solving industry challenges and finding new opportunities by working collaboratively with industry peers. Connie Harbison, Director of Quality Assurance for Baker & Taylor, has shown exceptional leadership as Chairman of the BISAC Committee, guiding the successful development and eventual acceptance of the Young Adult headings as a separate category from Juvenile. In addition, she concurrently served as co-chair of the Educational Taxonomy Working Group.
  • The Industry Champion Award pays tribute to an individual whose efforts have gone beyond the requirements of his or her position to advance the publishing industry while embracing BISG’s mission. Fran Toolan, founder, President and “Chief Igniter” of Firebrand Technologies, is well known for his dedication to supporting and promoting industry standards. His entrepreneurial approach to adapting Firebrand to the ever changing needs of the industry and sharing that insight throughout the industry has benefited many companies.  As much as Fran cares about his company, he actually cares more about the industry.
  • The Lifetime Service Award was given to Tom Clarkson, Cumberland Systems Review Group, celebrating his 40 years of extraordinary service with BISG. Tom has served as BISAC Chair, BISAC EDI Coordinator, and was the long-time chair of the BISAC Machine Readable Coding Committee, a position he held during the transition to ISBN-13. Starting with Ingram Book Company in 1970, he was responsible for implementing the original warehouse management system, the first automated order entry system, and and the initial product database. In 1982, he formed a distribution systems consulting group, and in 1991 he joined Barnes and Noble, Inc. where he served as corporate EDI Coordinator, Director of Systems for Barnes & Noble Distribution, and corporate Director of Supply Chain Technology. He authored the second edition of the Barnes & Noble vendor guidelines for shipping practices, incorporating BISG recommended standards. Tom’s work helped to revolutionize efficiency in how books are tracked throughout their travels in the supply chain. In accepting his award Tom said, “I’m happy just to have been a part of the team!”

In addition to the awards, the 2015 Annual Meeting of Members featured keynote speakers who made diverse presentations. Topics ranged from the future of e-book subscription services, to working together to resolve pains in the supply chain, to the effect of technology on human development. Keynote speakers were Nanette-Delumpa-Roach, Director of Vendor and Product Compliance at Barnes and Noble, Matthew Battles, author of Palimpsest: A History of the Written Word and Senior Researcher with metaLAB, Harvard; Richard Currier, author of UNBOUND: How Eight Technologies Made Us Human, Transformed Society, and Brought Our World to the Brink; Steve Lohr, New York Times reporter and author of Data-ism: The Revolution Transforming Decision Making, Consumer Behavior, and Almost Everything Else; and President and CEO of Simon & Schuster, Carolyn Reidy. New BISG Executive Director Mark Kuyper also made remarks along with President and CEO of Safari Andrew Savikas, who also serves on BISG’s Board of Directors as Vice Chair.

For more information on the BISG 2015 Annual Meeting of Members, including a full listing of nominees and award descriptions, please click here.  

About the Book Industry Study Group, Inc.

The Book Industry Study Group, Inc. (BISG) is the publishing industry’s leading trade association for policy, standards, and research. Membership consists of publishers, manufacturers, suppliers, wholesalers, retailers, librarians, service providers and others engaged in the business of print and electronic media. For 40 years, BISG has provided a seat at the table for everyone in the publishing ecosystem to come together and efficiently resolve issues, and ultimately advancing our community. Learn more about BISG at www.bisg.org and join today!