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Contact: Mary Taylor, LITA Director


312-280-4267


mtaylor@ala.org

For Immediate Release


June 13, 2003

LITA President’s Program on Universal Access to all Human Knowledge presented by Brewster Kahle

Library and Information Technology Association (LITA) President Pat Ensor, is pleased to announce that Brewster Kahle, digital librarian and director and co-founder of the Internet Archive, will be presenting at the LITA Presidential Program, “Universal Access to All Human Knowledge.”
The program, which takes place during the American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference, is scheduled for Monday, June 23, 2003, from 2 to 4 p.m. in the Metro Ballroom Centre of the Westin Harbour Castle in Toronto. A reception follows immediately in the West Ballroom.
The program and reception are made possible with generous support from Blackwell’s Book Services.

The goal of universal access to our cultural heritage is within our grasp.
With current digital technology we can build comprehensive collections, and with digital networks we can make these available to students and scholars all over the world.
The current challenge is establishing the roles, rights and responsibilities of our libraries and archives in providing public access to this information.
With these roles defined, our institutions will help fulfill this epic opportunity of our digital age.

Kahle has been working to provide universal access to all human knowledge for more than 15 years. Since the mid-1980s, Kahle has focused on developing transformational technologies for information discovery and digital libraries.
In 1989 Kahle invented the Internet’s first publishing system, WAIS (Wide Area Information Server) and in 1989, founded WAIS Inc., a pioneering electronic publishing company that was sold to American Online in 1995.

In 1996, Kahle founded Internet Archive (
http://www.archive.org), the largest publicly accessible, privately funded digital archive in the world.
At the same time, he co-founded Alexa Internet in April 1996, which was sold to Amazon.com in 1999.
Alexa’s services are bundled into more than 80 percent of Web browsers.

Kahle earned a bachelors degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1982.
As a student, he studied artificial intelligence with Marvin Minsky and W. Daniel Hillis.
In 1983, Kahle helped start Thinking Machines, a parallel supercomputer maker, serving there as lead engineer for six years.

Kahle is profiled in Digerati: Encounters with the Cyber Elite (Hardwired, 1996).
He was selected as a member of the
Upside 100 in 1997,
Micro Times 100 in 1996 and 1997, and
Computer Week 100 in 1995.

The following LITA awards and scholarship winners will be honored at the beginning of the President’s Program:

·
Patricia J. Cutright, LITA/Gaylord Award for achievement in library and information technology;

·
Joyce Friedlander, LITA/Endeavor Student Writing Award for research in library and information technology;

Roy Tennant, LITA/Library Hi Tech Award for outstanding communication in library and technology;

  • Herbert Van de Sompel, Frederick G. Kilgour Award for research in library and information technology;
  • William Lund, LITA/Christian Larew Memorial Scholarship;
  • Vynarack
    Xaykao, LITA/LSSI Minority Scholarship;
  • Roxanna Blackson, LITA/OCLC Minority Scholarship; and
  • Mark A. Dehmlow, LITA/Sirsi Scholarship.