Global networking

Abstract

I would like to welcome Dr Clifford Lynch: if you were here four years ago you will know he gave our opening address on that occasion: a brilliant speech. Clifford is a man of many interests in his own right and a member of many influential committees on technical questions, standards, library matters and data base issues and he is one of the few people who can see how all these phenomena link together. He can synthesise and can make some sense of it for the rest of us. Presently he is the director of Library Automation at the University of California, Office of the President, where he is responsible for the Melvyl system, which he told me yesterday is now around sixteen years old. It is one of the largest public access information retrieval systems in existence. Clifford also manages the network that links the nine University of California campuses to each other and to the broader Internet. He has been at the University of California since 1979. He received his PhD in computer science from the University of California at Berkeley: he is active in the development of standards and is the leader of the Coalition for Network Informations Architecture and Standards Working Group. He has served as director of, and is currently immediate past-president of the American Society for Information Science. When we contacted Clifford to see if he would be willing to come and speak he e-mailed back immediately saying ‘I would be delighted to do this if I can fit it into my schedule.’ Several weeks went by arranging other people to fit in with various meetings, and in the end Clifford had to commute to give this address; he arrived yesterday and he is leaving tomorrow! I have much pleasure in inviting our first keynote speaker, Dr Clifford Lynch to address us.