Working Furiously and Happily

Posted On Jun 4 2009 by

Six weeks goes by fast.  Yes, it’s been six weeks since OCLC announced WorldCat Local “quick start” as the first step toward a web-scale, cooperative library management service.  Not only does that six weeks represent two full iterations of agile development for the three main web-scale components–circulation, print and licensed acquisitions, and license management–it’s also been several interviews, speaking engagements, and lots of pressing product management work. One of the things I’m asked repeatedly is to explain the distinctions of OCLC’s effort in this space.  Here they are, taken directly from my powerpoints, listed as succinctly as possible, but with …


And now for something completely different

Posted On Apr 23 2009 by

Five years ago, I wrote an article for Library Journal about “Dismantling the System.” At the end of that article, I suggested that it would be necessary for us to dismantle systems so that we could rebuild them.  Of course, I left out how exactly we should do that. Now it’s time to be more explicit about what I have been up to for the last 15 months. I’ve been pretty busy listening to the library community, trying to put their views into a strategy, and creating something new that I hope will represent a real sea-change for libraries and the OCLC …