PITT'S SCHOOL OF INFORMATION SCIENCES TO MARK "100 YEARS OF EDUCATION" Carnegie Corporation Head Vartan Gregorian to help launch celebration

PITTSBURGH, May 15 --Vartan Gregorian, former president of Brown University and the New York Public Library and current president of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, will visit Pittsburgh to help the School of Information Sciences (SIS) at the University of Pittsburgh kick off a yearlong celebration of "100 years of education." The event is sponsored jointly by the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh and is co-hosted by Carnegie Mellon University and Pitt's University Library System.

Gregorian will speak on "Honoring the Past, Shaping the Future," beginning at 3 p.m., on Thursday, May 31, in the Carnegie Lecture Hall, in Pittsburgh's Oakland section. His presentation is free and open to the public. It is followed by a reception in the social sciences department of Carnegie Library.

One hundred years ago, the Training School for Children's Librarians – the only school in the world devoted solely to children's librarianship – was started as a department of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. Renamed the Carnegie Library School, it became a part of Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1930 and trained most of the professional librarians in the area. Carnegie Tech asked Pitt to take over the school, and in 1962, it opened as the Graduate School of Library and Information Sciences.

Today, Pitt's School of Information Sciences has two departments (Library and Information Science, and Information Science and Telecommunications), offering an undergraduate degree in Information Science, three master's degrees, certificates of advanced study, and two Ph.D. programs. In 1999, US News & World Report ranked SIS' Master of Library and Information Science program third nationally; health librarianship first; and children and youth, and archives and preservation both fourth. Its information science and telecommunications programs also are highly regarded worldwide.

Toni Carbo, dean of the School of Information Sciences, said: "The School has very successfully woven together the different threads of its specialization into the complex fabric of Information Sciences. We integrate people, knowledge, and technology to help people solve problems, make decisions, and improve the quality of their lives. While we continue to use the newest technologies, we also focus on the public good through service to the community and an emphasis on Information Ethics and information policies.

Dr. Gregorian is the ideal speaker to help us honor our distinguished past as we forge the future for our School."

For more information, call 412-624-5230.

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