Peter Lyman


George Peter Lyman was an American professor of information science who taught at the University of California, Berkeley School of Information, and was well known in U.S. academia for his research on online information and his leadership in remaking university library systems for the digital era.

Life

Lyman was a well-known figure in the fields of information and library science in his capacity as researcher and as university librarian for the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Southern California. He received his BA from Stanford University in Philosophy, his MA from Berkeley in Political Science, and his PhD in Political Science from Stanford. He taught Political Theory at Michigan State University, where he was one of the founders of James Madison College, a residential college with a public policy focus; at Michigan State he was also the Assistant Director of Academic Computing. He joined the University of Southern California where he became Dean of the University Libraries. He left USC in 1994 to take the position of University Librarian at the University of California, Berkeley, with a simultaneous appointment in the School of Library and Information Studies. In 1998, he became a full-time Professor in SIMS, where he taught and conducted research until ailing health resulted in his retirement in 2006. He died in July 2007.
In 2005, Lyman became the director of the Digital Youth Project, formally known as "Kids' Informal Learning with Digital Media: An Ethnographic Investigation of Innovative Knowledge Cultures," a three-year collaborative project funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Carried out by researchers at University of Southern California and University of California, Berkeley, the project explores how kids use digital media in their everyday lives. Prior to that, he conducted a widely cited study tracking how much information is created each year, "How Much Information?",
Lyman also contributed to fields outside of information studies. One of his most reprinted articles is "The Fraternal Bond as Joking Relationship: A case study of the role of sexist jokes in male group bonding," an analysis of the role humor plays in men's relationships. He was also an active faculty member at UC Berkeley's .
The diversity and range of his academic interests were not only reflected in his publications but also in his teaching. While at UC Berkeley, he taught or co-taught courses in: Information Policy, Analysis of Information in Organizations, Copyright Law and Policy, New Media, and Qualitative Methods, one of his primary academic passions.
In addition to his teaching and research, Lyman worked as an advisor to a wide range of organizations. He was on the boards of Sage Publications, EDUCOM, the Research Libraries Group, the Charles Babbage Institute, the Commission on Preservation and Access, the Council on Library and Information Resources, and the Internet Archive.
Lyman and his longtime spouse Dr. Barrie Thorne raised two children, Andrew Thorne-Lyman, a doctoral candidate in nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health and Abigail Thorne-Lyman, the Director of the Center For Transit-Oriented Development at . They also have three grandchildren.

Publications