ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 480 / C &R L News dropped down three stairs at its northwest, library access end. Van D ijk eliminated those steps, raised the floor level to that of Dauby and the in-process library, and connected all three buildings, as well as the Haessly Room, by means of a covered en­ trance passage. (A gentle brick ramp leads from this passage to the quadrangle’s sidewalk network.) He effected a spine outwards from which Ursu­ line’s academic buildings branch with a singular rationality and grace. The Ralph M. Besse Library, designed for Ursu­ line College, will in no way be an insular facility. According to library director Juanita Weisel, its raison d ’etre is first to serve Ursuline faculty and students and secondly people from surrounding communities. Housed in a facility that itself is a product of learned and creative excellence, it as­ sumes a stellar role in the Greater Cleveland li­ brary community.■ ■ Baltim ore ’8 6 Alan C. Kay, the Father o f the Personal Computer, to b e them e speaker in Baltimore. E n e r g i e s for Transition” is the theme of ACRL’s Fourth National Conference, April 9 -1 2 , 1986, in Baltimore. On Wednesday, April 9, at 1:00 p.m ., Alan C. Kay will make the first theme presenta­ tion concerning his per­ spective on technological changes, personal com­ puting, and artificial in­ telligence. He will utilize a variety of equipment, including laser disks, to generate and p ro ject messages illustrating his thoughts. The following back­ A lan C. K ay ground information has been supplied by Kay’s office at Apple Computer. “Father of the personal computer” is a title Alan C. Kay disclaims, but many acknowledge that it was Kay’s ideas which succeeded in getting industry’s attention for the personal computer. Much of this attention resulted from work done at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) whose alumni are responsible for much of the cur­ ren t leading-ed ge com puter tech nology. T he Golden Age of PARC occurred between 1971 and 1976, when Xerox gave a blank check to a group of young and talented computer scientists in a crea­ tive think tank environment. It was here that Kay conceived of Dynabook, the powerful lap-sized personal computer of the 1980s that would allow people to draw and write anywhere. Dynabook was the inspiration for Alto, the forerunner of Mac­ intosh. Another particularly celebrated contribu­ tion was S m alltalk , a very high-level o b ject- orien ted p rog ram m in g lan gu age used by non-programmers. He pioneered the use of icons instead of typed words for telling computers what to do next. During his time at PARC, Kay encouraged chil­ dren to visit and work with him, as he pledged never to design a personal computer that couldn’t be used by a child. He explains, “I think that since children appear to have to construct the world in­ side of their heads in order to become human be­ ings, then people must be natural constructors. Computers are the best construction material that we have ever com e up w ith outside our own brains.” The son of a physiologist and artist/musician, E N E R G I E S F O R T R A N S I T I O N ACRL Fourth National Conference April 9-12, 1986, Baltimore MD In Charm City T h e e x c ite m e n t o f B a ltim o re w ill m a tc h th e in te lle c ­ tu a l s tim u lu s o f th e C o n fe re n c e . You w ill e n jo y B a ltim o r e ’ s s p a rk lin g n e w In n e r H a rb o r, a m o d e rn w a t e r f r o n t c o m p le x o f h o te ls , m e e tin g p la c e s , re s ta u ra n ts a nd s h o p s . N e a rb y are th e n e w N a tio n a l A q u a riu m a nd S c ie n c e C e n te r. A n d th e re are p le n ty o f p la c e s to re la x b e tw e e n s e s s io n s a n d e n jo y al fre s c o d in in g a m id th e s o ft B ay b reezes. T he C o n fe re n c e th e m e is E n e rg ie s fo r T ra n s itio n . K n o w le d g e a b le le a d e rs and p r a c t itio n e r s fro m a ro u n d th e c o u n tr y w ill ke e p y o u u p -to -d a te on a ll th e is s u e s in n ew in fo r m a tio n te c h n o lo g ie s , n e t­ w o rk in g a nd s p e c ia l s e rv ic e s , a u to m a tio n , c h a n g in g m a n a g e m e n t te c h n iq u e s , b ib lio g r a p h ic in s tr u c tio n , c o lle c t io n d e v e lo p m e n t, fu n d in g , p la n n in g a nd b ib ­ lio g r a p h ic c o n tr o l. 482 / C &RL News Kay grew up in Australia, Massachusetts, and New York, eventually attending Brooklyn Technical High School. He received his bachelor’s degree in mathematics and molecular biology from the Uni­ versity of Colorado in 1966. He was a computer programmer during his Air Force years, then re­ ceived his Ph.D. in 1969 from the University of Utah. He joined the artificial intelligence project at Stanford and in 1970 became a founding principal at PARC, where he remained for ten years. Since Xerox, he has worked at Atari and is presently with Apple Computer where he is an Apple Fellow, one of three select scientists who have an independent charter to pursue far out ideas for Apple’s future. Beyond computers, music is Kay’s special pas­ sion. He has been a professional jazz musician, composer, and has built several musicial instru­ ments. His sole professional membership is in the International Society of Organ Builders. Every summer he attends a music camp in New Hamp­ shire, where he plays chamber music. Kay dismisses concerns that artificial intelli­ gence will somehow lead to the takeover of the world by computers (á la HAL in 2001). “Some people worry that artificial intelligence will make us feel inferior, but then, anybody in his right mind should have an inferiority complex every time he looks at a flower!” A colleague asked, “What has Kay done directly for libraries?” Based upon reading a profile that appeared in Psychology T oday in December 1983, a better question might be, “How can Kay stimu­ late the thinking of librarians about why they should want to use computers and bother to learn how to converse with them?” In that article, Kay dwells upon the desirability of having computer language that provides power, simplicity, and im­ mediacy (i.e ., a sense of control while maintaining the detail necessary for readability). In that con­ versation he talks in metaphors and analogies that ought to appeal even to those who are not yet com­ puter literate: “I always tell people, if you want to learn about com puters, w rite and produce plays… The computer is the most general of the ki­ netic arts.” (Psychology T oday, December 1983, p.5 3 .)— B ill W ilson. ■ ■ BI for business students By Aubrey W. Kendrick Administrative Services Librarian University of Alabama in Huntsville Team-teaching at the University o f Alabama. O t h e r librarians might be interested in the expe­ rience of the librarians at the University of Ala­ bama in Huntsvile in teaching a required biblio­ graphic instruction course for business students. The course—Bibliography of Business and E co­ nomics (Bibliography 230)— started as part of a general library use course called Bibliography 100. Many years ago, business students could take Bib 100 for four weeks of general library instruction, then take the business track for the rest of the quar­ ter. In this extension of Bib 100, they covered the commonly used business and economic reference sources. As the course became more popular, it was decided to create a separate course. The faculty in the School of Administrative Sci­ ence felt that the course was useful for their stu­ dents, and in 1980 it was made a requirement for business majors. The course now meets once a week for ten weeks and the students earn one credit hour. There are eleven sections of the course offered each