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Message from the Chair
Diane Fortner
Visitors can find landmarks like the Boston Common, the Old North Church, the Old State House, the Old (Globe) Corner Bookstore (built 1711), and Fenway Park, home of the Red Sox. Or, they can visit Route 128, the East coast's Silicon Valley, which has diversified into biotechnology companies. Boston is both an old city, with its wealth of history, and a young city, with its abundance of students from some 50 colleges and universities. Boston University was founded in 1869, Emerson in 1880, and Simmons in 1899. With the city of Cambridge just across the Charles River, Harvard University, Radcliffe, and MIT are not far away.
Boston, a compact 40 square miles, is a walker's city. Most of the historical attractions are located within one square mile. Starting at the Boston Common Visitor Kiosk, try the Freedom Trail, a walking tour of 16 historic sites, marked with a conspicuous red line (red paint, bricks, or footsteps). Driving is reportedly nerve-racking, and parking difficult. The subway is clean and efficient. Three and 7-day passes are available which permit unlimited travel on the 'T', MBTA buses and some rail zones.
PAM members may be interested in the Museum of Science (Cambridge), which offers displays on astronomy, biology, industry, nature, and physics, the Hayden Planetarium, the Omni Theater, as well as the opportunity of a riverside walk on the Charles River afterwards. The Computer Museum, open daily in summer, features a 2-story walk-through computer. Or, you may wish to visit the Boston Athenaeum, founded in 1807, one of the oldest and most distinguished libraries in America, or the Boston Public Library (1854; building 1895), the oldest free municipal library in the world.
Art enthusiasts will want to visit the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, famous for its eclectic collection of European and Asian art treasurers. A short distance away, on Huntington Avenue, you will find the Museum of Fine Arts, incorporated in 1870. Here you will find art from Egypt, Greece, Rome, the Near East, China, Japan, India, Europe, as well as the United States.
Shopping for gifts, visit the famous Faneuil Hall (Quincy) Marketplace, with more than 150 shops and restaurants. Or, try the Back Bay, which includes 8 blocks of Newbury Street, "the" shopping street in Boston. Along the way, you can stop at the Harvard Book Store Cafe (190 Newbury) or the Cafe Florian (85).
PAM members who plan to visit Boston with children may wish to consult Bernice Chesler's In and Out of Boston with (or without) Children.
The conference theme is "Information Revolution: Pathway to the 21st Century", and attendees can expect a high quality learning and networking experience. A sample of CE courses are: The Internet: An Introduction; Copyright in the Electronic Age; Using the Latest Tools to Increase Productivity. And division conference sessions include several on the Internet and the Web, along with ones on teaching research skills and dealing with change. In the schedule that follows, I highlighted a few programs which I thought might be of interest and do not compete with PAM sessions for time-slots. The General Session speaker will be Allen Neuharth, founder of USA Today and chair of the Freedom Forum, one of the nation's largest private foundations. The Forum disperses over $30 million annually in grants and operating programs in the subject areas of free press, free speech, and free spirit.
See you in Boston!