The University of Washington's School of Library and Information Science
proudly presents this year's distinguished Samuel Lazerow lecturer:

        Dr. David Levy,

researcher at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC).
Dr. Levy will deliver a lecture entitled:

"The Universe is Expanding: Reflections on the Social (and Cosmic)
 Significance of Documents in a Digital Age"

The lecture is free and will be followed by a reception.

Date: Tuesday, October 20th
Time: 4:00 pm
Place: U.W. Student Union Building (HUB) Room 209A


Abstract of lecture:

It was not so many years ago that television was thought to signal the
death of text. The explosive growth of the Internet, providing global
communications through email and global document access through the
World Wide Web, has put an end to such talk. But now, the emergence of
various digital forms, including hypertext and hypermedia, has raised
further questions about the survival of the library, the book, and
classroom education. What exactly is going on here and how are we to
make sense of such possibilities? My way of framing these issues has
been to ask: What is a document? That is, what exactly is the nature of
these various graphic and written forms, older forms as well as those
newly emerging, including books, cash register receipts, maps,
electronic spreadsheets, and Web pages? In my research, I approach this
question by focusing not only on the technologies involved but on the
social roles played by the various communicative forms -- by looking in
particular at the way these forms work to create social order. Viewing
current technological changes from such a vantage point, as I will in
this presentation, provides a way to make sense of what is going on,
and to consider what is at stake not only socially but politically and
existentially.


Information about David Levy:

David Levy is a researcher in the Systems and Practices Laboratory at
the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). He holds a Ph.D. from
Stanford University in computer science (1979) and a Diploma in
Calligraphy and Bookbinding from the Roehampton Institute, London
(1982). The focus of his work over the last decade at PARC has been on
the nature of documents and on the tools and practices through which
they are created and used. Current research topics include digital
libraries, the reuse of documents, document standards, and the combined
use of paper and electronic media. He is currently writing a book,
entitled "How Things Talk: Making Sense of Documents in a Digital Age."


About the ISI Lazerow Lecture Series:
The Samuel Lazerow Lecture, an annual event, is sponsored by the Institute
for Scientific Information's Corporate Awards Program. The Lecture Series
was established by ISI in 1983, to honor the memory of Samuel Lazerow, who
was an outstanding librarian, administrator, and pioneer in library
automation.

For more information, call the School of Library and Information Science
at 543-1749.

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   Efthimis N. Efthimiadis
   Associate Professor
   School of Library & Information Science
   University of Washington               tel-office: 206-616-6077
   Box 352930                             tel-school: 206-543-1794
   Seattle, WA 98195-2930                        fax. 206-616-3152
                                  email: [log in to unmask]
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