20 October 2000

Griffiths and Hawkins to speak at library conference

Among the distinguished international speakers at the ALIA 2000 conference being held in Canberra next week are Dr José-Marie Griffiths and Dr Brian Hawkins.

ALIA 2000, the Biennial Conference of the Australian Library and Information Association runs from 23-26 October 2000 at the National Convention Centre.

Dr José-Marie Griffiths
Dr José-Marie Griffiths is the University of Michigan's chief information officer; executive director of the Information Technology Division; and a full professor in the School of Information. She has overall responsibility for all aspects of information technology at the University of Michigan, including telecommunications, networking, computing and infrastructure.

Her paper discusses the 'digital divide'. While originally defined in rather narrow terms, access to technology, this issue is, in fact, much broader and deeper. Furthermore, technology is only a minor component of the divide. This presentation will re-define the digital divide and discuss its relationship to accessing library services in particular.

Dr Brian L Hawkins
Dr Brian L Hawkins is currently president of EDUCAUSE, a professional association of more than 1700 colleges and universities, dedicated to transforming higher education through information technologies.

This presentation discusses the challenges that libraries face as the transition from print-on-paper to digital environments unfolds. An attempt is made to explore the newly-emerging field of knowledge management and to explore its implications for the world of academic libraries. Then, examining the shortfalls of the current electronic environment, this paper identifies a vision for which we might ultimately strive and explores how we might go about operationalising a portion of this, envisioning a portal that would serve the academic environment. Finally, the challenge of collaboration will be explored, as a major obstacle in accomplishing the goals that have been identified.