A Penn Library Salute to ENIAC: 'What's Playing on the Celestial Jukebox'

For Homecoming 1996--the year of ENIAC's 50th Birthday--the University of Pennsylvania Library will offer a symposium and two days of tours, exhibitions, and open houses that include hands-on cruising of the Internet. Highlights of the schedule are:

Friday, November 1

Open House and Net Cruises, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. at all 15 Penn libraries, with staff to answer questions and equipment for cruising the net at one's own pace. Photo ID required for entrance to all libraries.

Symposium: What's Playing on the Celestial Jukebox: Real Knowledge in a Virtual World, 3-5 p.m. in Meyerson Hall, Auditorium B. As part of the year-long ENIAC celebration, National Public Radio's Terry Gross moderates a discussion on the future of knowledge and its creation in the academy, and the impact and implications of electronic publishing. Panelists are James Gleick, author of Chaos and Genius; Sherry Turkle, MIT sociologist and author of Life on the Screen; Paul Ginsparg, Los Alamos physicist who created the "e-Print archive"; and Paul Evan Peters, executive director of the Coalition for Networked Information.

Live Internet Theater, 10 a.m-3 p.m., second floor, Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center. Library staff demonstrate search engines and show how to find Business & Investments; Health Resources; Manuscripts & Diaries; Legal Resources; Art & Architecture; and Politics, including the Presidential campaign.

Guided Tour of Lippincott Library, 2 p.m., beginning at the entrance to the Safra Business Research Center, second floor west. Guides show the latest in electronic labs, conference and seminar rooms and state-of-the-art research tools.

Saturday, November 2

The Great Web Hunt Finals, 10 a.m.-12 noon, Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center, first floor. Students, who have been competing all fall in a quiz called the Web Hunt will face the final Internet Challenge; a first round is also offered for alumni, with questions now on the web at http://www.library.upenn.edu/friends/showcase/showcase.html (link no longer available).

Open House and Net Cruises repeated, 9 a.m.-noon (see Friday, above)

Live Internet Theater repeated, 9 a.m.-12 noon (see Friday above)
Guided Tour of Fisher Fine Arts Library, 10 a.m., beginning at the entrance to Frank Furness's historic structure, a monument to the Progressive Era of library reform that has been restored recently by Venturi, Scott Brown and Marianna Thomas.

Guided Tour of Lippincott Library repeated, 10:30 a.m. (see Friday)

Tours of Exhibitions: Saturday, November 2

The English Novel in an Age of Revolution; 10 a.m., Kamin Gallery; exploring a variety of responses to the revolutionary ideas introduced by English writers in the late 18th Century.

The Art of the Illustrated Book, 1780-1830, 11 a.m., Rosenwald Gallery, sixth floor Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center; in the collection of Harris N. Hollin (C'57) are hand-colored illustrated books on subjects ranging from natural history to caricature to costumes.


Almanac

Volume 43 Number 10
October 29, 1996


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