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Speakers Discuss Using Digital Technology to Preserve Information

Provost's Lecture Series addresses historical records in the digital age

Two separate events at Duke University in March will bring to campus the co-founder of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University and the archivist of the United States.

Jonathan Zittrain, professor of law and co-founder/faculty co-director of the Berkman Center, will discuss "Gaming History: The Battle for Narrative Control in the Digital Age," at 5 p.m. Wednesday, March 3. The discussion, in Room 139 of the Social Sciences Building on Duke's West Campus, is free and open to the public.

Zittrain will look at the factors that affect access and contribution to knowledge and the impact that ubiquitous human computing may have on the enterprise of recording and establishing history.

David Ferriero, archivist of the United States, will discuss, "Are We Losing Our Memory? The View from the National Archives." Ferriero is the former University Librarian at Duke and former director of the New York Public Library. His speech, at 5 p.m. Monday, March 22, in Room 130 of the Social-Psychology Building, is also free and open to the public.

The Provost's Lecture Series aims to inspire a year-long discussion of an issue of broad significance to society. Each speaker will discuss an aspect of this year's theme, "The Future of the Past, The Future of the Present: A Historical Record in the Digital Age."

For more information about the lecture series, visit: www.provost.duke.edu/speaker_series/.