Staying Vital in a Time of Change
Keynote Session
Networked Individuals, Networked Libraries
Lee Rainie
Director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project
Lee Rainie will discuss the latest research from the Project about the way Americans use the internet and their cell phones. He will explore how revolutions in social networking and technology adoption have changed the way people access, share, and create infor-mation and the way that libraries can adapt to this new information ecology to “stay vital” to their users.
The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project is a non-profit, non–partisan “fact tank” that studies the social impact of the internet. Since December 1999, the Washington D.C. research center has examined how people’s internet use affects their families, communities, health care, education, civic and political life, and work places. The Project has issued more than 250 reports based on its surveys that examine people’s online activities and the internet’s role in their lives. All of its reports and datasets are available online for free at: http://www.pewinternet.org.
Lee is a co-author of Up for Grabs, Hopes and Fears, Ubiquity, Mo-bility, Security, and Challenges and Opportunities. All are based on Project surveys about the future of the internet. He is also writing a book entitled Networking: The new social operating system with sociologist Barry Wellman about the social impact of the internet and cell phones for MIT Press. Prior to launching the Pew Internet Project, Lee was managing editor of U.S. News & World Report. He is a graduate of Harvard University and has a master’s degree in political science from Long Island University.