The College of Information Science and Technology has assumed primary management responsibilities for the Internet Public Library (IPL). The IPL, accessible at www.ipl.org, will be overseen by IST faculty members Drs. Eileen Abels and Denise Agosto. IST’s Computing Resource Center is assuming responsibility for the day to day operational support of the IPL. The IPL is supported by the 19-member I-School Caucus.

The IPL was developed in 1995 by University of Michigan graduate students in a course taught by Dr. Joseph Janes (now at the University of Washington) as they explored ways that librarians could contribute to the Internet. Since its inception, IPL volunteers have answered more than 56,000 reference questions, and the IPL collection now includes more than 45,000 links to online information resources. In addition to providing a public service, the IPL offers students in library and information science programs from around the world the opportunity of gaining real-life experience answering reference questions via e-mail. It also provides a learning forum for collection development, automated question-answering and systems design.