This is the third, and I hope, final resting place for Hectic Pace. When I learned that the American Libraries version of the blog (2006-2007) would disappear into the ether and when OCLC announced that Movable Type (don’t judge!) Hectic Pace content (2008-2013) could be migrated to a new platform or thrown away, I was tempted to let the past be the past. But then I counted up the 150 posts and nearly 300 comments over 10 years and could not let the past be forgotten. I’m grateful to ALA and to OCLC for being my blog platform, but I’m excited to have a new home for Hectic Pace.

As I cut and pasted and migrated and edited for style, I found myself re-reading. This made the process take much longer but also made it less tedious. I was struck by the library automation history that was captured in the blog. I was even more struck by dead links and defunct projects once thought to be panaceas. A lot has changed in 10 years. Some interesting things have not changed at all. I won’t detail them here, as I’ve promised myself not to fall into the self-referential trap in which it’s so easy to find oneself after writing for a long time.

I’m glad I preserved Hectic Pace for posterity, for myself if not for others. Some of you might enjoy a trip down memory lane and your own commentary. I’m looking at you Karen Schneider, Carl Grant, and Roy Tennant.

Over time, I will fix the links. If you find anything egregious, let me know and I’ll put its correction at the top of my list. If there are old topics you’d like to see revisited, let me know about those as well.

For those looking for a guided trip down memory lane, check out:

The early frontier of e-books

Mergers & Acquisitions posts

April Fool’s Day posts

Christmas Parody posts (still my most popular posts)