Office of the Provost and Executive Vice President for Academics

Distinguished Lecture Series

Title: The Book, Google, and the Future of the Research Library

Steven E. Smith, Ph.D.
Professor of Library Science, Associate Dean for Advancement,
Director of the Cushing Library and
Holder of the Dr. C. Clifford Wendler Endowed Professorship
Texas A&M University

February 7, 2007, 7:30 p.m.
Auditorium, Annenberg Presidential Conference Center
Texas A&M University

Abstract

Current discussions of technology and its implications for research libraries have focused on the transference of texts from paper-based formats such as books and periodicals to electronic media. Googles recent announcement of an ambitious plan to unbundle published content by digitizing the collections of five of the worlds largest research libraries has significant advantages, making texts much more easily distributed and consumed. The move from the physical to the digital is one of the great achievements of our age, allowing us to share information across time and space in ways unimaginable a few years ago. But this unbundling of content also creates transformative shifts of responsibility and activity for the research library and the academy. While offering the opportunity to radically democratize scholarly communication, these changes and shifts also raise serious questions about the dissemination and preservation of the scholarly and cultural record. These questions are among the most important facing higher education today.

About the Speaker

Smith is Associate Dean for Advancement for the Texas A& M University Libraries and Director of the Cushing Memorial Library and Archives. As Associate Dean, he serves on the administrative cabinet for the TAMU Libraries and coordinates all aspects of fundraising. As Director of the Cushing Library, he has leadership responsibility for special collections, manuscripts, rare books, the University Archives, and University Records Management. He holds the C. Clifford Wendler Professorship and adjunct appointments on the Graduate Faculty of the English Department at Texas A& M and in the School of Library and Information Science at the University of North Texas. He is founder and director of the annual Book History at A&M Workshop, which provides students with hands-on experience in printing and its allied technologies (typecasting, bookbinding, papermaking, and illustration) prior to 1800. He is the author of two books, over forty scholarly articles and essays, and numerous lectures on a wide range of topics, including the history of books and printing, digital libraries, and education and outreach in archives and special collections. His honors and awards include election to the Philosophical Society of Texas (2005); selection for the Association of Research Libraries Leadership Fellows program (2005); a Grolier Club Research Fellowship (2004); a Big XII Faculty Fellowship (1999/2000); the Distinguished Librarianship Award from the Texas A&M Association of Former Students (1997); and a Whitney-Carnegie Award from the American Library Association (1991). An Army brat, he was born in Nuremberg, Germany, and has lived and traveled in many places within the U.S. and abroad. From 1983 to 1985 he served as a missionary in New York City for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He served as a Medic in the National Guard for eight years. He is married with two children.

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