For immediate release | April 20, 2012

Derek Attig to serve as American Library Association’s Google Policy Fellow

Washington, D.C.—The American Library Association (ALA) announced today that Derek Attig, a doctoral student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, will serve as the organization’s 2012 Google Policy Fellow. Attig will spend 10 weeks this summer at the ALA office in Washington, D.C. working on technology and Internet policy issues.



As a Google Policy Fellow, Attig’s work will involve the future of libraries and the examination of new models for the physical infrastructure of libraries. His dissertation, titled “Here Comes the Bookmobile: Public Culture and the Shape of Belonging,” focuses on the role of bookmobiles in designing, building and contesting communities in the United States since the turn of the 20th century.



Attig will work for the ALA’s Office for Information Technology Policy (OITP), a unit of the organization that works to ensure the library voice in information policy debates and promote full and equitable intellectual participation by the public.



“The digital revolution both challenges and enables new opportunities for libraries’ ability to serve their communities,” said Alan Inouye, OITP director. “We look forward to Mr. Attig’s contributions to help us map out the possibilities for new models and their implications for society and public policy.



“ALA has been a partner in the Google Policy Fellowship program from its inception five years ago. We appreciate the opportunity to connect students in library-related topics to national public policy, and the resulting additional capacity for our office.”



To learn more about Attig, visit www.bookmobility.org.

Contact:

Jazzy Wright

Press Officer

American Library Association

Washington Office (WASH)

jwright@alawash.org

800-545-2433 8208

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