September 2011
Posted September 14, 2011
This Time It's Personal: Innovation in Your Home
For Immediate Release-September 14, 2011
Media Contact:
Kimberly Allen, Director of Development
816-926-8792
“THIS TIME IT’S PERSONAL: INNOVATION IN YOUR HOME”
Kansas City, MO—Drop the inventors Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison or Guglielmo Marconi in the 21st century--would they be amazed or appalled by the transformation of their original inventions? Technology and innovation color and shape our lives. The Linda Hall Library’s year-long celebration and exploration of the history of innovation continues with the opening of its fall exhibition, This Time It's Personal: Innovation in Your Home , Wednesday, September 28th at 6 p.m. Visitors to the Library will be surprised to realize the influence technology has had in every aspect of life. This exhibition will highlight more than 60 household inventions used daily and illustrate how these items are the result of decades—even centuries—of technological innovations. The exhibition runs from September 28, 2011 to March 9, 2012.
The opening night lecture features cultural historian and media scholar, Dr. Siva Vaidhyanathan from the University of Virginia. His topic, The Googlization of Everything (And Why We Should Worry), examines the impact the Google search engine has had on contemporary life. In the beginning, the World Wide Web was exciting and open to the point of anarchy. This was a vast and intimidating repository of un-indexed confusion available to anyone with internet access. In 1996, two Stanford researchers introduced into this creative chaos Google with its dazzling mission—“To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible”—and its much-quoted motto, “Don’t be Evil.” Dr. Vaidhyanathan wonders if we don’t trust this internet search engine just a little too much. The lecture begins at 7 p.m. To learn more about Dr. Vaidhyanathan, just Google him!
This lecture is the first in the Library’s Modern Inventions lecture series. Also included in this series:
October 19-Pulizter prize-winning author Jane Smiley on “The Man Who Invented the Computer”
October 26-Steve Sasson, inventor of the digital camera on “Disruptive Innovation: The Story of the First Digital Camera”
November 2-Nolan Gasser, composer and architect of the Pandora Radio and Music Genome Project on “What Musicology and Science Reveal about our Musical Tastes”
These lectures, which are free and open to the public, begin at 7:00 p.m. in the Library’s Main Reading Room. Doors open at 6:00 p.m. This lecture series is made possible through the generous support of the Dwight D. Sutherland family, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Spaulding, III and the Linda Hall Library Annual Fund.
The Linda Hall Library is located at 5109 Cherry, Kansas City, Missouri. These programs are free; however, the Library requests reservations. Call 816-926-8772, email Events@lindahall.org or visit www.lindahall.org.
The Linda Hall Library, the world’s largest privately funded library of science, engineering and technology, is free and open to the public. The Library is celebrating its 65th anniversary this year. Library hours are Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.; and the second Saturday of the month, 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. For more information visit the Library’s website at www.lindahall.org.
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