# LorcanDempsey.net
> Deep dives into the organization, culture and technology of libraries and their milieux. 
Public Ghost content for AI and LLM tooling. Use `/llms-full.txt` for consolidated page and post context.
Append `.md` to any post or page URL to get the content in Markdown (for example, `/example-post.md`).

## Pages
- [About the Blog](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/about-2.md) - This blog was developed as an internal communications vehicle and externalized after a year or so in October 2004. Naturally, its interests relate closely to those of OCLC Research generally. How do libraries serve network people? How are library organization, services and technologies co-evolving…
- [about lorcan](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/about.md) - Hi! Brief bio, contact details and pics below, together with links to fuller info. Get in touch!
- [the deep archive](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/archive.md)
- [Authors](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/authors.md) - It's lonely in here ...
- [colophon](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/colophon.md) - A note on platform and fonts.
- [personal coordinates](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/contact.md) - get in touch!
- [long bio](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/cv.md) - Since I first began working in Dublin public libraries I have always been motivated by mission and impact.
- [Lorcan Dempsey](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/homepage.md) - Hi ... I am a librarian, analyst, and adviser. I have worked with groups of libraries to develop shared programs, products and directions. 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 based in Columbus, O…
- [Membership](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/membership.md) - Why join? A couple of reasons. Members can comment on posts and members can receive updates when significant new content is added. Sign up to join. You can then opt in to receive updates. Once you are a member, you need to sign in if you wish to comment. This is to reduce spam. The system stores yo…
- [Why join?](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/membershipp.md) - A couple of reasons. Members can comment on posts and members can receive updates when significant new content is added.
- [speaking](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/presentations.md) - I regularly present and keynote about a range of topics. I am happy to consider invitations where there is some overlap of interest.
- [Signup](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/signup.md)
- [Topics](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/tags.md) - Explore by 🏷️
- [⁂ thanks for joining! ⁂](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/welcome.md) - Welcome! Do leave a comment on a post or get in touch. I don't post a huge amount so you will not be overwhelmed by email from me.Now that you are here, here are some overview pages on writing and work. ContactYou can reach me in the usual ways: You can also send me a note using this form: Check th…
- [writing](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/writing.md) - I have written widely over the years. Topics have evolved, but follow a general chronological arc from the technical, through the description of evolving digital systems and services, to organizational and institutional issues.

## Posts
- [The informational disciplines](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/the-informational-disciplines.md) - This is a further excerpt from my response to the LIS Forward paper. It considers some of the history and contours of the informational disciplines - information science, LIS, library studies. It notes the ongoing blurriness of identity, nomenclature and boundaries.
- [Introduction and summary: library studies, the informational disciplines, and the iSchool: some remarks prompted by LIS Forward](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/introduction-and-summary-library-studies-the-informational-disciplines-and-the-ischool-some-remarks-prompted-by-lis-forward.md) - A discussion of libraries and library studies in the context of library education. It is the introduction to, and summary of, my response to the LIS Forward position paper.
- [On the dissemination of ideas and innovation](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/on-the-dissemination-of-ideas-and-innovation.md) - A short discussion of sources of ideas in the library community, with special reference to the general framework laid out by Daniel Drezner.
- [Libraries and library studies](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/libraries-and-library-studies.md) - I wrote this piece on libraries and possible educational responses as part of a longer contribution on the informational disciplines and the iSchool. A principal goal was to suggest that libraries present interesting and challenging research and educational questions, which cross disciplines.
- [Clifford A Lynch, RIP](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/clifford-a-lynch-rip.md) - Cliff Lynch sadly died on 10th April 2025. Responses show how much Cliff meant to so many, and to the library and related communities. Here are some personal reminiscences and an appreciation of his achievement and the loss.
- [Information: a brief schematic history](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/information-a-brief-schematic-history.md) - In a piece on the informational disciplines and the iSchool, I sketched this very schematic and informal overview of information, broadly construed. My focus is pragmatic, related to library interests. I consider several current issues, including the 'apotheosis of the document' in an AI context.
- [Document chat: an early AI use case](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/document-chat-an-early-ai-use-case.md) - AI-assisted document query and summarization services are becoming more common. This post compares the 'ask a PDF' outputs of several services. Overall responses were good, with reasonable variation, and no significant hallucinations. It also touches on some characteristics of AI-based services.
- [Teaching: one year in](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/teaching-one-year-in.md) - I reflect on my first year of teaching at the iSchool in the University of Washington. A little about teaching. A little about Canvas, the library, and some software tools. A little about me and my learnings.
- [Libraries, AI and the messy middle](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/presentation-libraries-ai-and-the-messy-middle.md) - Introduces an annotated presentation about AI, libraries and a range of related issues. It is influenced by the consequences of considering AI as a new 'cultural technology.'
- [Smile: let's see your teeth](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/the-whole-tooth.md) - I was excited to discover the graphic novel Smile by Raina Telgemeier. The subject matter has strong personal resonances for me.
- [So-called soft skills are hard](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/soft-skills-are-hard.md) - So-called soft skills are important across a range of library activities. Existing trends will further amplify this importance. Describing these skills as soft may be misleading, or even damaging. They should be recognized as learnable and teachable, and should be explicitly supported and rewarded.
- [AI, OpenAI and the evolving AI environment](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/ai-x-and-the-rest.md) - For a few days recently, the news was dominated by reports of organizational upheaval at OpenAI. Here are some reflections on what happened, with some connections to library topics.
- [Using a custom GPT to ask about collections and collaboration](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/why-is-library-collaboration-so-hard-according-to-the-lorcan-dempsey-chatbot.md) - 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.
- [AI ... and the rhinoceros in the room redux](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/the-rhinoceros-in-the-room-redux.md) - Understanding the discussion about AI benefits from hands-on experience of tools and services.
- [Generative AI and libraries: seven contexts](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/generative-ai-and-libraries-7-contexts.md) - Libraries are engaging with AI in their educational, service and policy work. This post discusses seven contexts in which that work is taking place.
- [Twenty years of blogging and still going!](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/twenty-years-and-still-going.md) - 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.
- [Celebrating Ohio](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/ohio.md) - 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.
- [The narrative website: from signposting to storytelling](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/websitings-from-signposting-to-narrative.md) - 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.
- [Generative AI, scholarly and cultural language models, and the return of content](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/generative-ai-a-note-about-content.md) - 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.
- [Font choices, values and ecosystem, with some national library examples](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/national-libraries-and-fonts.md) - 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.
- [Generative AI and large language models: background and contexts](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/intro-gen-ai.md) - 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.
- [Hallucination and collections](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/hallucination-and-collections.md) - I asked HuggingChat about library collections. It is definitely hallucinating in its responses.
- [The technology career ladder](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/technology-is-not-on-the-outside.md) - 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.
- [Incorrigibly plural: notes about fonts](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/font-notes.md) - A brief note about fonts in social settings. Each speaks to gaps in the dominant tradition.
- [Reflections .. on my last day at OCLC](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/reflections-on-my-last-day-at-oclc.md) - 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.
- [Reflecting life and career: advice to an LIS graduate student](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/letter-to-an-lis-graduate-student.md) - 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.
- [Workflow is the new content 1: looking at research support and engagement](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/workflow-is-the-new-content.md) - 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.
- [Presentations: Collection directions, pandemic effects, Belgium, Italy](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/presentations-collection-directions-pandemic-effects-belgium-and-italy.md) - 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.
- [Presentation: Two Metadata Directions](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/presentation-two-metadata-directions.md) - 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.
- [Two metadata directions](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/metadata-directions.md) - 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.
- [Working with Ghost: a review](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/working-with-ghost.md) - This site is built with Ghost and the Krabi template. I use it for blogging and as a professional home on the web. Why Ghost? Here are some initial thoughts. Ask me again in a year's time .
- [A new web presence: transitions and towers](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/transitions.md) - This is a new web presence for Lorcan Dempsey! My goal is to provide a contact point and to bring together various elements of my work, writing and career. In part I am influenced by the decentralizing impulse to control your own archive.
- [The book of the blog](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/book-of-the-blog.md) - Not very many blogs end up as books. This one did!
- [Presentation: College, consortium, collaboration, collective collection](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/college-consortium-collaboration-collective-collection.md) - Collective collections as an example of collective action. A discussion of the issues library consortia face. Presentation materials.
- [Presentation: The RLUK Digital Shift Forum](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/presenting-to-rluk-digital-shift.md) - I was pleased to inaugurate the RLUK Digital Shift Forum, with a presentation on Pandemic effects and collection directions. I was especially pleased to be kindly introduced by my longstanding colleague Robin Green, University Librarian at Warwick University, and current chair of RLUK.
- [From Lorcan Dempsey's Weblog to LorcanDempsey.net](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/place-on-the-web.md) - Blog transitions: moving Lorcan Dempsey's Weblog to a new home at LorcanDempsey.net.
- [Collection directions accelerated? Pandemic effects](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/collection-directions-accelerated.md) - 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.
- [Calgary Central Library: combining intimacy and civic statement](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/calgary-public-library-a-civic-presence.md) - The Calgary central library was on first impression the finest public building I have been in for years.
- [Collective collections: Prospective and retrospective collection coordination](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/2451-2.md) - Coordinating collective collections Collective collections are collections addressed at a level above the individual institution. I introduced our recent report on operationalizing collective collections in my last post, where I noted that there is a trend towards more managed collective collection…
- [Operationalizing a collective collection](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/operationalizing-a-collective-collection.md) - While collective collections have been much discussed, less attention has been paid to how to operationalize them in consortial settings. This post introduces work done with the BTAA to explore this challenge.
- [The facilitated collection redux: a note on collections as a service, the University of California, and Elsevier](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/the-facilitated-collection-redux-a-note-on-collections-as-a-service-the-university-of-california-and-elsevier.md) - Libraries now manage facilitated collections alongside their acquired collections: these are collections assembled from the web organized around user interests.
- [Memory institutions redux: pluralizing memories and a stay against forgetting](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/memory-institutions-redux.md) - We are now used to memory institutions as a way of collectively referring to libraries, archives and museums. We also recognize that memory is not univocal or may be contested.
- [University Futures are shaping Library Futures](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/university-futures-are-shaping-library-futures.md) - Libraries are not ends in themselves, but serve the interests of the organizations of which they are a part. As university emphasis varies around research, education and career poles, we can expect to see libraries evolve to support those emphases more strongly.
- [A reservoir not an ocean - visualizing and operationalizing collective collections](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/books-reservoirs-and-oceans.md) - When I think of the Google Books initiative now, three things stick with me. The first is simply what an audacious idea it was – to digitize all the books. The second is that without it, the book literature is less accessible than the web literature, which seems a pity. Google Books has allowed fin…
- [The powers of library consortia 4: scoping, sourcing and scaling](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/the-powers-of-library-consortia-4-scoping-sourcing-and-scaling.md) - In making choices about focus and investment, consortial options can vary along three important axes: scoping, sourcing and (right)scaling.
- [The powers of library consortia 3: scaling influence and capacity for impact and efficiency](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/the-powers-of-library-consortia-3-scaling-influence-and-capacity-for-impact-and-efficiency.md) - Scaling capacity (building shared infrastructure and services) and scaling influence (aggregating a library voice to lobby or persuade) are historically core consortial activities.
- [The powers of library consortia 2: soft power and purposeful mobilization: scaling learning and innovation](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/the-powers-of-library-consortia-2-soft-power-and-purposeful-mobilization-scaling-learning-and-innovation.md) - Library consortia play an important role in scaling learning and innovation – this will become both more purposeful and more important in coming years.
- [The powers of library consortia 1: how consortia scale capacity, learning, innovation and influence](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/the-powers-of-library-consortia-1-how-consortia-scale-capacity-learning-innovation-and-influence.md) - Libraries and related organizations group together in a variety of ways to get their work done. They consort where there are scale advantages: to lobby, for example, to negotiate and license, to reduce costs, or to build shared infrastructure.
- [One handed writing - the blog](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/one-handed-writing-the-blog.md) - Recently @mishdalton [https://twitter.com/mishdalton] pointed me at an article [https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/25/opinion/tips-for-aspiring-op-ed-writers.html?mcubz=1] about writing op-eds for the New York Times. I was immediately struck by how applicable much of what was said was to blog writing.…
- [Libraries and the curse of knowledge](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/libraries-and-the-curse-of-knowledge.md) - It is important to know what you know, so that you can avoid the curse of knowledge and communicate effectively.
- [The facilitated collection](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/towards-the-facilitated-collection.md) - Collections are changing in a network environment. One important direction is the assembly of resources around user needs based on a facilitated access model rather than an acquisition model.
- [Research information management systems: a new service category?](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/research-information-management-systems-a-new-service-category.md) - It has been interesting watching Research Information Management or RIM emerge as a new service category in the last couple of years.
- [The decentered library network presence](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/the-decentered-library-network-presence.md) - The library does not have a singular network presence. There may be a main website, but the library also syndicates its presence to other venues (e.g. RSS), has unbundled to social sites (e.g. Facebook), and sources activity in the cloud (e.g. LibGuides).
- [Roses are red .... the top love stories?](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/roses-are-red-the-top-love-stories.md) - St Valentine's Day. What are the most popular love stories? Taking library holdings as a proxy for popularity.
- [Full library discovery](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/full-library-discovery.md) - The collection remains central to the library experience. However, as library services evolve beyond the collection so it makes sense for discovery services to represent more of what the library does and can provide - to move from 'full collection discovery' to 'full library discovery.'
- [Three challenges: Engaging, rightscaling and innovating](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/three-challenges-engaging-rightscaling-and-innovating.md) - A framework of engagement, innovation and rightscaling is used to talk about some of the ways in which the library is changing. This is based on a model developed by John Hagel and John Seely Brown.
- [Names and identities: looking at Flann O'Brien](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/names-and-identities-looking-at-flann-obrien.md) - There is not a one-to-one relationship between names and people. This means that the relationship between people and their names and identities has become something that is managed in a variety of places. OCLC Research has several projects in this area.
- [Defining the library ... reflexively](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/defining-the-library-reflexively.md) - Library definitions often emphasize access to or management of information. However, the library has a much stronger generative role in the cycle of knowledge creation.
- [Twit-therapy .. a quick note](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/twit-therapy-a-quick-note.md) - I am reading Bedsit Disco Queen: how I grew up and tried to be a pop star, a memoir by Tracey Thorn [https://www.traceythorn.com/]. Here is a quick note to record what I thought was an interesting discussion about Twitter. Thorn writes about frustration with record company and producer, and goes on…
- [A fragmented reading experience: locally and anecdotally speaking ..](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/a-fragmented-reading-experience-locally-and-anecdotally-speaking.md) - Our reading experience is fragmented across print and digital in increasingly varied ways, which means that we have to make more choices in how we acquire books.
- [Systemwide organization - sourcing and scaling redux](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/systemwide-organization-sourcing-and-scaling-redux.md) - Libraries are increasingly taking a system-wide perspective of their roles and services. This can take different forms.
- [Discovery vs discoverability ...](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/discovery-vs-discoverability.md) - Inside-out and outside-in: libraries, collections, services I have been interested in the different dynamics of the inside-out and outside-in library for a while (see here [https://www.liberquarterly.eu/articles/10.18352/lq.10170/] for example). One especially interesting characteristic is the quit…
- [The President, the election and big data](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/the-president-the-election-and-big-data.md) - A little over four years ago I wrote a post about the presidential primary results, suggesting that an important political threshold had been crossed. The network – and notably the use of social and mobile – was centrally influential. > Whatever your political orientation, it is clear that Obama ha…
- [Two things prompted by a new website: space as a service and full library discovery](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/two-things-prompted-by-a-new-website-space-as-a-service-and-full-library-discovery.md) - Drawn by a Tweet I looked at Stanford's very nice new library website just now. I only spent a few minutes there but I was immediately and strongly struck by two things. Each makes so much sense that I imagine they will become routine. The first was the foregrounding of library space as a service.…
- [The enterprising librarian ...](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/the-enterprising-librarian.md) - The entrepreneur I participated in an interesting event at the School of Information and Library Science at UNC a while ago. It was a symposium to consider the ‘information professional’ of 2050. Yes, that is 2050 🙂 There was a mix of people. Some in LIS education; some in libraries; and some in i…
- [Making things of interest Discoverable, Referencable, Relatable, ...](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/making-things-of-interest-discoverable-referencable-relatable.md) - I came across the Ernest Hemingway phrase ‘gradually, then suddenly’ in an online discussion recently. Here is the context on the useful Goodreads quotable quote page. It seemed a statement appropriate to our times, and especially apt to a recent phenomenon: the growing importance of large-scale kn…
- [Big data .. big trend](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/big-data-big-trend.md) - [I spoke at the Lita Top Technology Trends at Dallas. I had a trend in reserve – big data – but did not use it. Here is something along the lines of what I might have said …] Big Data is a big trend, but as with expressions for other newly forming areas, it may evoke different things for different…
- [Linking not typing ... knowledge organization at the network level](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/linking-not-typing-knowledge-organization-at-the-network-level.md) - ‘Knowledge organization’ seems a slightly quaint term now, but we don’t have a better in general use. Take the catalogue. This has been a knowledge organization tool. When an item is added, the goal is that it is related to the network of knowledge that is represented in the catalogue. In theory, t…
- [End of the digest ....](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/end-of-the-digest.md) - For almost as long as this blog has been going we have had an associated digest. This has gone out to over 800 people. The frequency of the digest has changed as the frequency of posting has gone down. We have decided that it is now time to turn off the digest. While the blog continues, it has beco…
- [Social reading](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/social-reading.md) - It seems to me I have heard the phrase ‘social reading’ more often recently. That said, it also seems to me that its use has been a little vague, largely, I expect, because it has no precise referent: the activities to which it refers are not sufficiently coalesced. That said, it does seem that as…
- [Collections are library assets](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/collections-are-library-assets.md) - Business school writing I quite like using the word ‘assets’ with reference to library collections. We tend to think of assets in positive terms, as things that are valuable. More of that later. I was interested to see Rick Anderson remark on the vocabulary used by my colleague Constance Malpas a w…
- [The ILS, the digital library and the research library](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/the-ils-the-digital-library-and-the-research-library.md) - Job adverts are interesting for a variety of reasons. They give a sense of skills and attributes in demand. They say something about how the hiring institution wants to present itself. And they can indicate trends.
- [Preserving musical heritage ...](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/preserving-musical-heritage.md) - One of the casualties of the London riots last week was a Sony distribution warehouse. > The building, owned by Sony DADC, was also the main HQ for the UK’s biggest distributor of independent music, Pias. [More than 1.5m CDs destroyed in Sony warehouse fire [https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/14490635]…
- [Nostalgia, the Dublin Irish Festival, and variant forms of names](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/nostalgia-the-dublin-irish-festival-and-variant-forms-of-names.md) - The Dublin Irish Festival is on this weekend – Dublin, Ohio, that is. I notice that Moya Brennan is performing. As some folks will know, Moya Brennan is an Irish singer who was a member of the well-known family group, Clannad. They emerged in the 70s, playing very much in a traditional irish music…
- [Worldcat Identities Network: a 'mashup'](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/worldcat-identities-network-a-mashup.md) - There has been some nice reaction to the Worldcat Identities Network [https://www.oclc.org/research/news/2011-07-28.htm]. [https://experimental.worldcat.org/IDNetwork/display.html?query=lccn-n50-1905] [https://experimental.worldcat.org/IDNetwork/display.html?query=lccn-n50-1905] The initial motivat…
- [Gamification: services and libraries](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/gamification-services-and-libraries.md) - I have been interested to see more notes in my tweetstream about peoples’ exercise or diet regimes. They are typically generated by network services as a by-product of some activity, running or cycling, for example, and are part of a motivating framework. The Withings bathroom scale [https://www.am…
- [Spotify and Klout: fungible influence](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/spotify-and-klout-fungible-influence.md) - Popular music streaming service Spotify has just launched in the US. For some background see the Ars Technica story [https://arstechnica.com/media/news/2011/07/music-service-spotify-finally-to-launch-in-us-on-thursday-morning.ars] . One of the interesting aspects of the launch was the tie-in with K…
- [Some quotes: sizing the academic library ...](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/some-quotes-sizing-the-academic-library.md) - A couple of years ago Ross Housewright of Ithaka S+R published an article about the future of academic libraries. The thesis was that the academic library was in danger of disruption, along the lines already experienced by the corporate library. Success would depend, he argued, on shifting from a s…
- [Hamster wheeling ....](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/hamster-wheeling.md) - I have found the expression ‘hamster wheeling’ useful over the last few years. I tend to use it in the context of any frantic effort where the participants have to keep several things going at the same time, and where it seems that slowing down might cause something to fall off. More specifically,…
- [Books, artifactually and anecdotally speaking  ...](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/books-artifactually-and-anecdotally-speaking.md) - Artifacts Anecdotally speaking ……. it seems to me that the artifactual and design elements of print books are coming more to the fore, albeit in different ways. As the use of ebooks grows this is not really surprising, as this change creates niche opportunities for experiences focused specifically…
- [Effective web presence ...](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/effective-web-presence.md) - We are growing used to the idea that simply making things available on the web does not necessarily make them widely discovered or discoverable. I have used the phrase ‘search engine interoperability’ [https://www.google.com/search?q=%22search+engine+interoperability%22+lorcan] in these pages alrea…
- [Analysing influence .. the personal reputational hamsterwheel](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/analysing-influence-the-personal-reputational-hamsterwheel.md) - Analysing influence has been a central part of academic life. We are very familiar with citation analysis. This is possible because the system allows that metric to be measured and it is seen to be meaningful. As new measures have become possible in a web environment they too have been taken up. Se…
- [Sourcing and scaling: the University of California](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/sourcing-and-scaling-the-university-of-california.md) - I was interested to see Heather Christenson describe The Hathi Trust as a collaboratively sourced web scale research library in a recent article (Hathi Trust: a research library at web scale. PDF [https://www.hathitrust.org/documents/christenson-lrts-201104.pdf]). This reminded me of an entry I wro…
- [Academic reputation enhancement ... redux](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/academic-reputation-enhancement-redux.md) - Two things prompted this note …. First, there is an interesting report in the current issue of Nature on the ‘online image’ [editorial [https://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v473/n7346/full/473124a.html]] or ‘online reputation’ [article [https://www.nature.com/news/2011/110511/full/473138a.html] ]…
- [Elected ...](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/elected.md) - I thought it would be nice to record that a couple of my colleagues had recently been elected to positions of note … Jackie Dooley [https://www.oclc.org/research/people/dooley.htm], Program Officer, has been elected Vice-President/President Elect for 2011/12 of the American Society of Archivists. T…
- [Decentred network presence](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/decentred-network-presence.md) - We still tend to think of the website as the focus of institutional presence on the network. And, often, mobile or other presences are seen as somehow derivative. Clearly the importance of mobile – especially now with tablets and smartphones – has changed that view and changed the way we think abou…
- [Lost in translation .. redux](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/lost-in-translation-redux.md) - I am at The 9th Annual Library Leadership Institute [https://lib.hku.hk/leadership/2011.html] in Bangkok. This event is organized by The University of Hong Kong Libraries [https://www.lib.hku.hk/] and brings together librarians from around Asia. It has a dual purpose: to develop and enhance managem…
- [Advocacy: public library as amenity and necessity](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/advocacy-public-library-as-amenity-and-necessity.md) - Downward pressure on the cost of public services creates issues for public libraries. A growth in advocacy is a natural response, and this in turn creates pressing questions about value, and in particular about how different stakeholders potentially perceive value differently. Who one is addressing…
- [Lam-inating libraries ... redux](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/lam-inating-libraries-redux.md) - The shared interests between libraries, archives and museums (LAMs) has been an important line of work [https://www.oclc.org/research/activities/lamsurvey/default.htm] for OCLC Research. It is also of course a recurring service, organizational and policy issue in many contexts. A related issue is a…
- [A small note on sustainability, business models  and words ...](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/a-small-note-on-sustainability-business-models-and-words.md) - Sustainability is an important aspect of digital library initiatives. Partly because they are often funded by grant or special monies, out of the mainstream of business as usual. For this reason, it is not surprising to see how much attention the topic has received. Before coming to OCLC I worked f…
- [Sympathy for Microsoft ...](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/sympathy-for-microsoft.md) - We are watching a handful of companies battle to support our work and learning lives, our communication, entertainment and social network. The good guys are no longer quite such good guys (Apple, Google?). And the CEO of Facebook can characterize [https://www.fastcompany.com/1698672/underdog-micros…
- [Internal boundary changes .. the library in the institution](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/internal-boundary-changes-the-library-in-the-institution.md) - It has been interesting in recent years to see how library boundaries within universities have shifted as relationships with other campus providers potentially change. This is natural enough as the network has changed the way in which research, learning and administration are carried out within the…
- [The library building and the library service](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/the-library-building-and-the-library-service.md) - Library buildings were built around collections. They are now being reconfigured to be built around experiences.
- [Children's Book Week .... Retread](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/childrens-book-week-retread.md) - [A discussion about children’s book Peepo! on Twitter prompt me to recycle this entry from 2006] To mark Children’s Book Week folks here at OCLC are talking about children’s books that mean something to them Here are two I like ….. The Wool-pack [https://worldcat.org/oclc/00621582] One of the first…
- [The amplified event](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/the-amplified-event.md) - We now amplify conferences - combining various engagement options for people who are not present face to face at the event. Physical presence is increasingly seen as one mode only of participation.
- [The power of pull redux .. with examples](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/the-power-of-pull-redux-with-examples.md) - The power of pull I have written about the Power of Pull [https://www.edgeperspectives.com/pop.html] before, an interesting book by John Hagel, John Seely Brown, and Lang Davison. For a fuller discussion see the earlier blog entry (People are entry points too … redux [https://blog.oclc.org/lorcand/…
- [The Collections shift](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/the-collections-shift.md) - A few things about library collection shifts came to my attention this week … Taken together, they underline several central trends: the move to electronic, the managing down of print collections, and the curation of institutionally-generated learning and research resources. Cloud-sourcing collecti…
- [Buying books and/or experiences: a consumer view](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/buying-books-and-or-experiences-a-consumer-view.md) - A while ago I was interested to observe that I had begun to resist buying paperback novels. Before that, I would often come away with one from a trip to our local Border’s (sadly now closing) or sometimes buy a mystery novel in the airport (especially on the return trip when good intentions about w…
- [The institution and the network ... a question of scale](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/the-institution-and-the-network-a-question-of-scale.md) - I was interested to come across this passage in a presentation [ppt [https://www.ucl.ac.uk/library/Library-Strategy-Final.ppt]] about library strategy by Dr Paul Ayris of University College London: > Challenges * Identifying the needs of UCL researchers and students, and recognising the most approp…
- [The university's curatorial role](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/the-universitys-curatorial-role.md) - I made a note in these pages a couple of years ago about the University of Edinburgh’s mission statement. The University’s mission is the creation, dissemination and curation of knowledge. The occasion was Chris Rusbridge’s justified pleasure at seeing the mission changed to include ‘curation’. At…
- [Using Wikipedia](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/using-wikipedia.md) - We still don’t appear to know what to make of Wikipedia. Consider these two cases. First, Edward Glaeser includes a reference to Wikipedia in the acknowledgements to his new book, Triumph of the city [https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/650211168]. > Following common practices, Wikipedia is not listed in…
- [The library network and the scholarly record](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/the-library-network-and-the-scholarly-record.md) - The library community is a highly interconnected one. Networks are motivated both by library mission and effective management of resources. This trend will accelerate as the Internet favors shared services, and libraries will see more benefit in building such shared services. The Hathi Trust is an…
- [There is more to discovery than you think](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/there-is-more-to-discovery-than-you-think.md) - Colleagues at the University of Minnesota have produced another must-read report on the discoverability of library resources [Splash page, PDF]. Importantly, it provides a framework within which to think about evolving issues and in this way makes a real contribution to our understanding of the env…
- [The service turn ...](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/the-service-turn.md) - A while ago I spent some time looking through the institution profiles collected by ARL. One of the themes I noticed was the ‘service turn’, where libraries were looking at the quality of their services in support of research and learning as important markers of distinction, more important, maybe,…
- [Managing down collections ...](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/managing-down-collections.md) - I was interested to read this from Karen Schneider a while ago: “Centralized mass storage for legacy print materials (paper-based books and journals) is by far the most under-observed trend in libraries today”. I agree, with the friendly qualification that the trend is about managing the relationsh…
- [Open for business](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/open-for-business.md) - Well, I wish I could say I was back by popular demand … but that might be stretching the truth just a little 🙂 I am resuming blogging activity for the new year. This also means that we will resume sending out the digest. However, we are going to experiment with a bi-weekly approach, which probably…
- [Hiatus](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/hiatus-2.md) - A digest of this blog is distributed to registered readers each Monday morning. This week, only this entry will be noted as new. I have slowed down on the blogging front and am now going to take a break for a while to focus on some other commitments. I will return later in the year. In the interim,…
- [Evolving research life ...](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/evolving-research-life.md) - I was interviewed for the British Library’s Growing Knowledge: the evolution of research [https://www.growingknowledge.bl.uk/Default.aspx] exhibition, which opened last week. I have not seen the physical installation yet but there is an online presence [https://www.growingknowledge.bl.uk/Default.as…
- [The infrastructure is getting thicker ..](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/the-infrastructure-is-getting-thicker.md) - Andy Powell has a nice post on general trends in educational use of networking. The context is a reflection on the future of federated access management but the points he makes are more generally interesting. He talks about the economic situation, outsourcing to the cloud and shared services, the v…
- [Influencing how you are seen in results ...](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/influencing-how-you-are-seen-in-results.md) - Two websites I regularly look at are the The Guardian and Times Higher Education . In my lazy way I will often just pop the names into Google when looking for them. I have been interested in how they are characterised in Google results, based on what they put in the Meta description tags. Before sa…
- [Books about universities ... expansion](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/books-about-universities-expansion.md) - What do the most popular books about universities say about them? There is no consistent pattern and some surprises.
- ["How golden is your retriever?" Maurice Line RIP](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/how-golden-is-your-retriever-maurice-line-rip.md) - My former UKOLN colleague Ruth Burt sent me a note last week noting that Maurice Line had died. Ann Chapman writes about his work at the University of Bath, where he was the first University Librarian, as follows … > While at Bath, Line initiated a number of research projects. INFROSS, a study of s…
- [Presenting ....](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/presenting.md) - Although I give quite a few presentations, I don’t really present enough for them to become ends in themselves. I am thinking of this content-wise and style-wise. Content-wise, I tend to talk about things that are currently on my mind unless I have been asked to describe a particular set of activit…
- [Changing communications ....](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/changing-communications.md) - I was struck by this comment by Om Malik as he talked about the acquisition of the TechCrunch group of blogs by AOL. > Earlier this week, when he announced the acquisition, it dawned on me what a pivotal moment in the history of blog-based media entities it was. Five years ago, we were the upstarts…
- [Sorting out demand again ....](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/sorting-out-demand-again.md) - Ask.com announced the demise of Bloglines a while ago. From October 1st the service will no longer exist. The rationale was twofold: first they wanted to focus on their core business, and second they described how the environment had changed …. > A little perspective: when we originally acquired Bl…
- [Library literature again ...](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/library-literature-again.md) - Two interventions First a mention of two recent articles …. Rick Anderson has a very nice piece in Educause Review about budgets, libraries and scholarly publishers. It is an interesting reflection on systemic change, always difficult to manage as it involves reconsidering why things are done as we…
- [The idea of FRBR ...](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/the-idea-of-frbr.md) - Not having a copy of The Idea of a university [https://www.worldcat.org/title/idea-of-a-university/oclc/33103649/editions?referer=di&editionsView=true] to hand, I was looking in Google Book Search and Amazon earlier. Newman is in the news (here is the Wall Street Journal [https://online.wsj.com/art…
- [Newman](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/newman.md) - And speaking of UCD …. To be a student at University College Dublin was to be very much aware of Cardinal Newman, in name at least, as he lent it to various buildings, institutions and initiatives. Cardinal Newman has been much in the news recently, in advance of his beatification by the Pope in Bi…
- [Brutalist architecture and libraries](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/brutalist-architecture-and-libraries.md) - The growth of print collections coincided with the brutalist style in architecture and expanding campuses. You could make a fine calendar with pictures of libraries in the brutalist style.
- [Emerging network level management of the collective print collection](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/emerging-network-level-management-of-the-collective-print-collection.md) - One of the recurrent themes in these pages is that systemwide coordination of print materials is necessary as libraries begin to retire collections – to offsite storage or removing them altogether. There are various drivers here: the demands on space, the emergence of a digital corpus, the cost of…
- [Information management on campus: CRIS, IR, CERIF, CRM, PIPAL](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/information-management-on-campus-cris-ir-cerif-crm-pipal.md) - One of the consequences of our network world is that more and more activities are ‘informationalized’: they generate data and the management of data is an important part of their operation. We will increasingly see applications which want to mix information about researchers and publications with i…
- [The network reconfigures library space ... mobile redux](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/the-network-reconfigures-library-space-mobile-redux.md) - So taken was I by William J Mitchell’s comments on the impact of the network and mobile communications on space that I have quoted it here a couple of times already 😉 Here it is … The fact that people are no longer tied to specific places for functions such as studying or learning, says Mr Mitchel…
- [Blogging again](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/blogging-again.md) - Even if some heat has gone out [https://blog.oclc.org/lorcand/archives/001989.html] of the library blogosphere, there is still a fair amount of reading and writing going on. I was asked recently what I tended to look at, going beyond the well-known bigger names. Here are some of the blogs that came…
- [A web-sighting: NCSU Libraries redux](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/a-web-siting-ncsu-libraries-redux.md) - Susan Rector from NCSU Libraries left a nice note on my entry about library websites [https://news.lib.ncsu.edu/redesign]. She pointed at some discussion [https://news.lib.ncsu.edu/redesign] of the redesign on their libraries blog. I was particularly interested to read about their objectives with t…
- [3 stages of library websites](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/3-stages-of-library-websites.md) - While writing about subject pages and library websites the other day, it occurred to me that we might think of library websites in three stages – which emerged successively and continue to exist together. Always mindful of the rule of three 😉 We might clumsily call these stages: [1] fragmentary, […
- [Resource/course guides and content management](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/resource-course-guides-and-content-management.md) - I have mentioned Libguides [https://springshare.com/libguides/] a couple of times, which seem to be quite widely used. I have been interested recently to come across some other initiatives which aim to organize subject- or course-based library resources within a consistent content management enviro…
- [QOTD: Information environments ...](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/qotd-information-environments.md) - ‘Information environment’ is a vague term, vague enough to be usable in a variety of contexts. For me, as I worked for JISC before coming to OCLC, it will always be associated with the JISC agenda [https://www.informationenvironments.org.uk/about.html] to advance an integrated network of informatio…
- [Curating the web ...](https://www.lorcandempsey.net/curating-the-web.md) - A couple of recent events interestingly relate … First, I read in Search Engine Land [https://searchengineland.com/srinija-srinivasan-leaves-yahoo-47997] of the resignation from Yahoo of Srinija Srinivasan. Srinavasan was once arguably “the most powerful person in search” writes Danny Sullivan. Thi…

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