DATE: Oct. 15-17, 2006.

EVENT: Second annual i-Conference of the iSchools Project. The i-Conference this year will focus on research frontiers in the information field, featuring speakers and a dozen working sessions devoted to specific topics. More than 300 faculty and graduate students of the iSchools will be on hand. The agenda is available at: http://iconference.si.umich.edu.

The following sessions are free and open to the public:

1 p.m. Oct. 15: John Wilkin, interim co-university librarian, U-M, and Perry Willett, head of Digital Library Production Service, ” U-M Digital Library Initiatives and the Google Book Search Project.

7 p.m. Oct. 15: John Seely Brown, director emeritus, Xerox PARC, ” Learning Reconceived for the Networked Age. “

9 a.m. Oct. 16: Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief, Wired , ” A Problem with the Long Tail. “

9 a.m. Oct. 17: Christine L. Borgman, professor and presidential chair in information studies, UCLA, ” Disciplines, Documents, and Data. “

An iSchool, as defined by last year’s conference, is an institution with a vision that emphasizes connecting people with information; they work toward this vision by designing, developing, and evaluating information technologies, systems, and services; and they bring together faculty from a range of more traditional disciplines to conduct multidisciplinary research. A trend in higher education is the evolution of a new breed of professional school, and the growing impact of iSchools as they graduate the next generation of information professionals and researchers.

Already this collaboration among iSchools is returning dividends. The Internet Public Library (http://ipl.org), founded at U-M in 1995, is now partially funded and governed by a newly formed consortium of iSchool Project members. This consortium will oversee the growth of the IPL and expand its educational component to other iSchool graduate programs.

LOCATION: University of Michigan campus, most i-Conference 2006 sessions will be held in the University’s Rackham Building, 915 E. Washington St. Map:

http://www.umich.edu/news/Maps/ccamp.html

REGISTRATION: Complimentary registration is available to reporters. Please contact fdesanto@umich.edu or (734) 647-7313. Those interested in working sessions should go to the registration page on the conference agenda online.