Institutions

Information: a brief schematic history

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.

Lorcan Dempsey Apr 24, 2025 20 min read

Institutions

So-called soft skills are hard

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.

Lorcan Dempsey Mar 7, 2024 12 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 Dempsey Mar 13, 2023 7 min read

Institutions

Calgary Central Library: combining intimacy and civic statement

The Calgary central library was on first impression the finest public building I have been in for years.

Lorcan Dempsey Sep 11, 2019 3 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. We also recognize that memory is not univocal or may be contested.

Lorcan Dempsey Dec 7, 2018 8 min read

Institutions

University Futures are shaping Library Futures

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.

Lorcan Dempsey Oct 18, 2018 8 min read

Institutions

Three challenges: Engaging, rightscaling and innovating

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.

Lorcan Dempsey Jul 5, 2013 9 min read

Institutions

Defining the library ... reflexively

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.

Lorcan Dempsey Mar 21, 2013 3 min read

Institutions

The enterprising librarian ...

The entrepreneur I participated in an interesting event at the School of Information and Library Science at UNC a while

Lorcan Dempsey Jun 30, 2012 6 min read

Institutions

Collections are library assets

Business school writing I quite like using the word ‘assets’ with reference to library collections. We tend to think of

Lorcan Dempsey Aug 31, 2011 3 min read

Systems

The ILS, the digital library and the research library

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.

Lorcan Dempsey Aug 17, 2011 1 min read

Collections

Preserving musical heritage ...

One of the casualties of the London riots last week was a Sony distribution warehouse. > The building, owned by

Lorcan Dempsey Aug 14, 2011 1 min read

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