Former UC Berkeley librarian dies

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Jul 6, 2007 | by Matt KrupnickSTAFF

BERKELEY -- Former UC Berkeley librarian Peter Lyman, an expert in online and educational technologies, died Monday of brain cancer at his Berkeley home. He was 66.

Lyman, who also taught in the university's School of Information, had studied how children use digital media in their everyday lives. One of his most important works, "How Much Information?" with Berkeley colleague Hal Varian in 2004, tracked the staggering amount of information produced digitally in a year, the university said Thursday in a written statement.

"It was clear that he felt that scholarly work was done in the service of improving the world and the lives of others," said Mizuko Ito, a University of Southern California researcher who worked with Lyman on the youth study. "In our work together, he always insisted on looking at questions that were meaningful and significant in the real world."

Lyman received bachelor's and doctoral degrees from Stanford University and a master's degree from UC Berkeley. He co-founded James Madison College at Michigan State University and taught there from 1967 to 1987.

He also taught at Stanford, UC Santa Cruz and USC, where he became the head librarian in 1991. He was named UC Berkeley's librarian in 1994.

He is survived by his wife, UC Berkeley professor Barrie Thorne; a son, Andrew Thorne-Lyman of Rome; a daughter, Abigail Thorne- Lyman of Berkeley; and two grandsons.