Michael Hawley to be featured speaker at the ALCTS President's Program

Contact: Charles Wilt
Executive Director, ALCTS
312-280-5030
cwilt@ala.org
For Immediate Release
May 6, 2005

Michael Hawley to be featured speaker at the ALCTS President’s Program

CHICAGO - Michael Hawley, director of Special Projects at MIT and a faculty member at the Media Lab, will speak on the future of libraries in a digital age at the ALCTS President's Program 2005, “Librarians, Learning and Creativity: A Boundary-Breaking Perspective,” during the Annual Conference on Monday, June 27, 10:30 a.m., in the Red Lacquer Room of the Palmer House, Chicago.

Hawley is an authority on digital media and its social and business applications and implications. He is renown as an innovator, educator, and explorer and founder of Friendly Planet--a nonprofit company dedicated to educating children in developing countries; founder and director both of MIT's Toys of Tomorrow and Things That Think projects; winner of the first Jack Kilby Award for Innovation in Science; a first prize winner in the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs; a one-time Duncan Yo-Yo champion; a luge racer and member of the U.S. Bobsled Federation.

Hawley holds the Guinness record for the World's Largest Published Book, “Bhutan: A Visual Odyssey across the Last Himalayan Kingdom,” measuring 5 x 7 feet and weighing 133 pounds.

Karen Calhoun, associate university librarian for technical services at Cornell University, will offer observations on the changing context of a librarian in the interconnected world of the Web, in which self-sufficient information seekers move well beyond library collections in pursuit of what they need.

During the program, Hawley and Carol Diedrichs, ALCTS president, will present the Field Museum of Chicago with a copy of his book, “Bhutan: A Visual Odyssey across the Last Himalayan Kingdom.” The presentation of the book to the Field Museum was made possible by an anonymous donation.

Elsevier generously supports the ALCTS President's Program.