Governance Matters

Posted On Oct 16 2007 by

I’ve never really grasped the whole “meme” thing that seems to be so popular in library blogs. When I see a new meme emerge, I feel as though I’ve already missed the boat—like the cliche of reading about trends in Time, by then it it too late. As a lover of words and phrases, though, I am intrigued by what I would call lots of pre-meme activity—the use (and often over- and mis-use) of words that become part of the growing library lexicon. Recent examples include: seamless, disintermediation, open, and the like. Borrowing liberally from Entertainment Weekly’s “What’s hot”: Currently, there …


Still Here

Posted On Aug 21 2007 by

No, I did not drop off the face of the planet, and I recognize that 13 days without a post is the blogospheric equivalent of digital disappearance. Vacation, followed by vacation recovery, was the cause of my absence. Summer is coming to an end. Classes at NCSU start today. My kids go back to elementary school next week. We made it through another summer. In the meantime, there have been some library automation happenings of note. I think we made it through the entire summer season without the loss, merger, or acquisition of a single ILS entity! Some attrition at …


A New CEO and a New Company

Posted On Jun 19 2007 by

SirsiDynix gets a CEO I am speeding off to D.C. for ALA, but I would be remiss to not get this announcement out first, since I have been clamoring for it both on- and offline. SirsiDynix has named a new CEO (pdf). Interesting news is that it will be a name that some librarians will recognize—Gary M. Rautenstrauch. Rautenstrauch recently held several executive positions at Baker & Taylor, including CIO, VP of Operations, and CEO. Rautenstrauch was replaced by Richard Willis when the company was sold to Willis Stein & Partners back in 2003. He followed B&T with short stints …