Winner of the Polaris 2011 John Iliff Innovation in Technology Award, David Newyear is the Lake Branch Manager at the Mentor Public Library and also serves as part of the reference staff at the Lakeland Community College Library. He has been developing and implementing an artificially intelligent "virtual reference librarian" using AIML markup language for the last two years. David holds an MLS from Kent State University and a Bachelor of Music in Horn Performance from Northwestern University. Prior to his current position, David worked as a reference librarian at the Lakeland Community College and at the Perry Public Library.