It’s Friday afternoon at ALA, so of course I am at annual RMG session hosted by library consultants Rob McGee and Pat McClintock. I’d be lying if I denied that a big part of me would rather be at the OCLC Symposium where David Weinberger and Nova Spivak are speaking.
This has to be an all-time record for number of people on the RMG panel (or any panel for that matter). Ten library automation representatives (including my boss, Robin Murray, Vice President of Global Product Management) and a panel of 5 library innovaters. Forty minutes in and the introductions are over.
A few years ago at this session, I accused the panel of CEOs of not innovating enough. A charge that none of them was ready to answer at the time. This was before next-gen catalogs, the uptake of open source management systems, and better business intelligence tools. 4 years later, I’m pleased to see a few major changes in the makeup of the session, which now includes some open source vendors and a group of library practitioners. I’m not sure 15 people and 3 hours is the best way to go, but traditions change slowly.
I will do my best to synthesize what I hear here in a follow-up post.
