Steve Lieber's IPL Blast from the Past

Continuing on our IPL Birthday theme, here's a very rare Steve Lieber cartoon that appeared in the IPL's one-time newsletter for kids, WebINK, back in 1997:

Happy Birthday, IPL!

On March 17, 1995, the Internet Public Library opened its virtual doors to the world.

In early January of that year, a group of thirty or so graduate students at the University of Michigan School of Information and Library Studies gathered in a room and launched their plan to create a public library for the Internet community. Ten short weeks later that dream became a reality, and now ten years later the IPL continues.

I was proud to be one of those thirty students who created the IPL, and after the class I continued to work on the IPL project for seven years, spending the last 3.5 of those years as the Director. During that time I had the privilige to work with scores of talented students on the project. I have now continued on my career away from the IPL, but I look back on those days fondly and continue to be impressed by the work of those who continue what we began a decade ago.

So Happy Birthday, IPL--here's to at least ten more!