I heart ALA Conference
Posted On Jun 17 2008Okay, maybe I’m a little strange, but I really like ALA conferences. Until I started writing for American Libraries and getting uber involved in LITA, I was an occasional attender, but my love for the conference goes back to the fact that I got my first job at an ALA, over a 7am breakfast with an Innovative Interfaces VP. When I started attending regularly, I would fill literally every minute of the day with activity, usually for the magazine, but mostly out of a desire to get as much as possible out of being there. You’d have to check with …
Artificial Unintelligence
Posted On Jun 3 2008Five years ago, I wrote a book. Originally titled “Strange Bedfellow,” this work on the relationships between libraries, vendors, and dot-com entities was re-titled The Ultimate Digital Library: Where the New Information Players Meet. Some of the better parts of that book seemed so radical then and look entirely passe now. It’s hard to believe it’s been five years since it came out, but where was I supposed to go from “Ultimate?” The More Ultimate Digital Library? I was actually looking to see if I could pick up some used copies since I have given all but one of mine …
No, It’s the Network, Stupid
Posted On May 29 2008My friend and colleague Chrystie Hill reminded me the other day that I was wrong about something. This was no revelation, this happens quite frequently. In a conversation about OCLC’s various assets, I was going on again about leveraging the vast amounts of data in the WorldCat bibliographic database and all the potential of the WorldCat Registry. Chrystie reminded me, as anyone working in the WebJunction group should, that it is the network of people that matters. They create the data in WorldCat. They arethe institutions in the Registry. This truism was made all the more poignant by a really …