Jean Armour Polly

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Jean Armour Polly is a librarian by profession, the author of a series of books on safe Internet services (Surfing the Internet), and has been an active Internet user since 1991.

She received her BA in Medieval Studies at Syracuse University in 1974, and her Master’s in Library Science from the same university in 1975.

Polly is credited with coining the phrase "Surfing the Internet", being the author of the first known appearance of the phrase in print, in an article called Surfing the INTERNET, published in the University of Minnesota Wilson Library Bulletin in June, 1992.

Polly is the author of the well-known series of books "The Internet Kids & Families Yellow Pages". (This was a spin-off of the original series "Harley Hahn's Internet Yellow Pages", by Harley Hahn.) Because of her long-standing work, devoted to family- and child-related issues on the Internet, Polly is often referred to as one of the original "Mothers" of the Internet.

She was Director of Public Services and Internet Ambassador at NYSERNet, Inc (1992-1995).

She has served on the Internet Society Board of Trustees (1993-1996) and on the ICANN At-Large Advisory Council (ALAC) (2004-), as well as on the board of ICRA.

She lives in New York state, where she runs the "Net-mom" Internet site.