ACRL announces keynote speakers
Contact: Margot Sutton Conahan
312-280-2522
For Immediate Release
October 2002
ACRL announces keynote speakers
Three keynote speakers will provoke, entertain and inspire attendees at the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) 11th National Conference in Charlotte, April 10-13, 2003. The speakers will discuss the conference theme, "Learning to Make a Difference."
- Paul Duguid, co-author of
The Social Life of Information (Harvard Business School Press, 2000) became interested in information when he worked at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Corporation with "extraordinary" scientists. Yet, when the computer scientists talked about information, they thought about "bits on a wire" and the social scientists meant people talking. Information is what libraries deal with. During the opening keynote session, Duguid will share his ideas on the library's role as a community, and the necessary interrelationship between librarians and their users and between other users. - Bill Ferris, the former head of the National Endowment for the Humanities, knows the South. Not only is he a native Mississippian, he's the co-editor of the
Encyclopedia of the South, and newly affiliated with the Center for the Study of the American South at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He'll share his views during the All-Conference lunch. A student of Southern music, he'll also play his guitar to demonstrate the South's role in blues, country music and rock 'n' roll. - Belle Wheelan grew up in a time and in a family in which knowledge is power. Her parents reminded her - and she has never forgotten - that other African-Americans lost their lives because they could read. Her reverence for reading carried over to her 10 years as a college president, when she presided over a moment of silence when the card catalog was closed. Formerly the president of Northern Virginia Community College, the second-largest community college in the country, Dr. Wheelan is now the Secretary of Education for the Commonwealth of Virginia. During her session, she'll share her look at the past with her view of challenges for the future.
For more information, please visit ACRL's
National Conference Web site. Questions? Contact 800-545-2433, ext. 2522; e-mail:
acrl@ala.org.
ACRL is the only individual membership organization in North America that develops programs, products and services to meet the unique needs of academic librarians. ACRL's 11,000 members are comprised of individuals from a wide range of academic institutions, publishers and vendors who sell in the academic marketplace. ACRL enhances the effectiveness of academic and research librarians to advance learning, teaching and research in higher education. More information about ACRL's programs and services can be located on the
ACRL Web site. ACRL is a division of the American Library Association