Lorcan Dempsey

Hi ... I am a librarian, writer, and adviser. I enjoy working with groups of libraries to develop shared services, products and directions. I help guide national and international cooperative and R&D programs. I have been very lucky to work for library, educational, and non-profit organizations in Ireland, the UK, the EU and the US.

Explore my reflections about the evolution of libraries in their social and cultural contexts here.

Please get in touch if we can work together. And sign up to follow along!

Generative AI, scholarly and cultural language models, and the return of content

AI momentum continues to grow, and we are seeing more applications in the scholarly and cultural spaces. Several organizations have been creating specialist large language models based on reservoirs of curated scientific and cultural data.

Lorcan Jun 28, 2023 22 min read

Font choices, values and ecosystem, with some national library examples

Typefaces and fonts are functional. However they also contribute in other ways - to brand, to atmosphere, to feeling. This is a brief introduction to aspects of the typeface ecosystem. I combine this with some commentary about how typefaces are used in national libraries to provide context.

Lorcan Jun 11, 2023 44 min read

Systems

Generative AI and large language models: background and contexts

The promise and challenge of Generative AI is now central. This is a summary overview of some of the major directions and issues, acknowledging that things are moving very quickly. I intend it as background to later posts about library implications and developments.

Lorcan May 24, 2023 49 min read

Institutions

The technology career ladder

Library leaders should be drawn from across the organization. Any idea that technology leaders are overly specialised or too distant from general library work is outmoded and counter-productive.

Lorcan Mar 13, 2023 7 min read

Meta

Reflecting life and career: advice to an LIS graduate student

What do I value about libraries? asked a student. What is essential for a library student to know? Here are several ways in which life experiences have influenced my views.

Lorcan Feb 25, 2022 15 min read

Research ∕ Learning

Workflow is the new content 1: looking at research support and engagement

The phrase 'workflow is the new content' captures an important insight. In the digital environment we often create, use and share content through workflow applications.

Lorcan Feb 21, 2022 10 min read

Collections

Collection directions accelerated? Pandemic effects

Over the past few years I have been talking about three systemic ways in which collections, broadly understood, are evolving in a network environment. They are: the collective collection, the facilitated collection, and the inside-out collection.

Lorcan May 19, 2020 11 min read

Institutions

Memory institutions redux: pluralizing memories and a stay against forgetting

We are now used to memory institutions as a way of collectively referring to libraries, archives and museums.

Lorcan Dec 7, 2018 8 min read

Hallucination and collections

I asked HuggingChat about library collections. It is definitely hallucinating in its responses.

Lorcan May 13, 2023 3 min read

Meta

Incorrigibly plural: notes about fonts

A brief note about two interesting groups of fonts. Each speaks to gaps in the dominant tradition.

Lorcan Mar 1, 2023 2 min read

Meta

Reflections .. on my last day at OCLC

Today is my last day at OCLC. After 21 years. I have been very lucky to have worked with some great people, to have influenced important work, and to have worked with librarians around the world. Here are some brief reflections as I prepare for the next chapter.

Lorcan Jun 30, 2022 8 min read

Collections

Presentations: Collection directions, pandemic effects, Belgium, Italy

I presented updated versions of a presentation on libraries and pandemic effects and some implications for library collections recently. Each was delivered remotely, one to an event in Ostende, Belgium, and one to Milan, Italy, as unfortunately we have not yet returned to professional travel.

Lorcan Nov 12, 2021 3 min read

Systems

Presentation: Two Metadata Directions

The presentation Two Metadata Directions looked at metadata trends, including entification and pluralization. Here are the slides, video and a link to a fuller discussion.

Lorcan Jul 29, 2021 2 min read

Systems

Two metadata directions

Metadata practice continues to evolve as research and cultural practices diversify. After a brief environmental view, I discuss two important metadata trends here: entification and pluralization.

Lorcan Jul 14, 2021 16 min read

Explore topics

Systems

Doing things with software and data.

1060 posts

Institutions

Libraries are social organizations, entangled in multiple histories, politics and value systems.

416 posts

UX

Broadly construed .. how we experience systems, services and interfaces.

334 posts

Books

Notes about books, movies and reading.

305 posts

Research ∕ Learning

Research and learning behaviors drive academic library change.

294 posts

Social

The network organization of personal, social and academic life.

172 posts

Collections

Collective, inside-out, facilitated, optimized, pluralized and computationally analyzed.

114 posts

Meta

Comments about the site, or more personal observations or topics.

27 posts

*Classics

Posts which introduced concepts or vocabulary which have gained some currency.

25 posts

Collaboration

Balancing common goals and institutional autonomy makes library collaboration difficult.

8 posts

Fonts

Fonts make language visible, and can communicate a particular feeling. How are they used in libraries, cultural institutions, universities and related organizations?

2 posts

Lorcan Dempsey

Systems

Institutions

UX

Books

Research ∕ Learning

Social

Collections

Meta

*Classics

Collaboration

Fonts

Lorcan Dempsey dot net