Dr. Safiya Noble, assistant professor in the Annenberg School of Communication at USC and noted authority on how race, gender, and culture are affected by digital media design, gave the 2018 Womack Lecture for the Henry Madden Library on Friday, April 20, in the Table Mountain Reading Room. Dr. Noble centered her talk on her latest groundbreaking book, Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism (NYU Press, 2018) and shared examples of the ways in which search engines funnel information to people which can influence not only what information is readily available to the masses but how legitimate it is perceived. She explained how these manipulated search engine results also have an effect on how people think about a given issue, how they spend their money, and certainly, how they vote.

Her talk attracted a full house of diverse attendees from all sectors of the university and community and elicited a standing ovation at the end. Her book has received national attention and rave reviews.

Dr. Noble is a Fresno native who attended Roosevelt High School and is a Fresno State alumnus with a double major in Sociology and Ethnic Studies. She also has a degree in Information Science which has served her well in her interdisciplinary work. Her next book, Valley Values: Silicon Valley's Dangerous Domination of Politics and the Public Imagination is forthcoming.

Dr. Noble's talk was sponsored by the Printise J. Womack fund, established by the late Rhoda Womack, in honor of her husband, who was a librarian at the Henry Madden Library from 1958 to 1970. The annual Womack lectures are focused on issues of a bibliographic nature or on social concerns, as stipulated by the family's bequest to the Library.