Celebrating advances in information retrieval – the timeless conundrum

On a work visit to London in November 2023 I made a detour to collect the Tony Kent Strix Award memorial statuette from the retiring Chair of the judging panel, Douglas Veal. Sadly, he passed away earlier this year. He dedicated years managing and promoting this prestigious accolade; a bronze owl captured in flight. Veal was a member of the original working group that approached the Institute of Information Scientists (IIS) with the idea to honour the lifetime achievements of Dr. Tony Kent after his death in October 1997. The Award was inaugurated in 1998 by the IIS and is now presented by the UK e-information Group in partnership with the International Society for Knowledge Organisation UK Chapter (ISKO UK), the British Computer Society Information Retrieval Specialist Group (BCS IRSG) and the Royal Society of Chemistry Chemical Information and Computer Applications Group (RSC CICAG). It is a brilliant example of the importance of cross sectorial and organisational collaboration in information science and celebrates outstanding practical innovation and achievement in search and information retrieval.