Hi ... I am a librarian, writer, and adviser. I enjoy working with groups of libraries to develop shared services, products and directions. I have guided 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.
I am currently Professor of Practice and Distinguished Practitioner in Residence at the Information School, University of Washington. Explore my reflections about the evolution of libraries in their social and cultural contexts in these pages.
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It is hard to believe, but this blog celebrates its twentieth birthday on 20th October 2023. Topics have varied, but have almost always been about libraries in some way.
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.
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.
OpenAI now allows you to develop custom chatbots which use the power of GPT4 but can be tailored to work with your data and carry out particular actions. I discuss them in general and introduce an example built on some of my own publications.
A temporary relocation makes me realize how much there is to like and to say about Ohio, where we have lived for the last 22 years. We moved to Ohio from the UK (and lived in Ireland before that). Here are some observations based on our travels around the State over the years.
As we move from a collections-based to a relational library, storytelling becomes very important. One trend is the emergence of a stronger narrative or storytelling emphasis on websites, which helps position the library, promote its services, and address specific interests.
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.
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.
