News Release

2001-26

Two Industry Canada Employees Win the Agatha Bystram Award

Ottawa, November 26, 2001 - Mr. Roch Carrier, National Librarian and Chair of the Council of Federal Libraries, announces that Fay Turner and Vicki Kohse, both with the National Secretariat of the Canada Business Service Centres at Industry Canada, are this year's winners of the Agatha Bystram Award for Leadership in Information Management. The Awards ceremony was held today during a luncheon at the Canadian Museum of Civilization, in Hull, on the occasion of the Annual Fall Seminar of the Council of Federal Libraries.

Ms. Turner and Ms. Kohse are both commended for their work in the Business Start-up Assistant (BSA) Web site, developed by the Canada Business Service Centres. This Web site consolidates information essential to anyone wishing to launch a successful business, and combines start-up information from sources that include the Canada Business Service Centres, the federal and provincial governments, and the business community. Information is organized by topics critical to starting a new business, such as market assessment, financing, taxation, and writing a business plan.

"With more and more Canadian citizens starting small and medium-size businesses, the Government of Canada identified the need for organized, easy-to-use information on business start-up to facilitate the creation of these businesses and to contribute to their long-term success," said Roch Carrier. "With the BSA, Canadian citizens will no longer have to identify and search different Web sites for federal, provincial, municipal and non-government sources of information on how to start a business."

The Agatha Bystram Award was instituted in 1995 by the Council of Federal Libraries and recognizes the achievements of federal government employees who are innovators in the management of federal information resources.

Members of the 2001 Award jury are Roch Carrier, National Librarian, Paul McCormick, Director General, Strategic Policy and Planning, National Library of Canada, Bill Collins, President, Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation, Vicki Whitmell, Executive Director, Canadian Library Association, and John McDonald, a consultant in Information Management.

This year's Award ceremony was sponsored by the Institute of Physics, Ebsco Canada Ltd., IHS Canada/Micromedia Ltd., Carswell Thomson Professional Publishing, Divine Inc., Swets Blackwell Canada and OCLC.

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Information: Julia Goodman
Development Officer
Council of Federal Libraries
613-996-7271

Pauline M. Portelance
Media Relations Officer
National Library of Canada
613-996-6128