Darn right, I want to be a product manager

Posted On Sep 29 2016 by

I’m immensely proud of my time as a product manager. I have a new role now at OCLC, but as they say, you can take the boy out of product management…it’s the lens through which I view the library world. I was thrust into the role in my first professional position at a for-profit library vendor. I spent nearly a decade trying to establish product management discipline and a better product life cycle at an academic library. And I spent nearly as long developing and managing products and services at OCLC. I’m certified in Pragmatic Marketing. I’m a dedicated disciple of its …


Reviving Hectic Pace

Posted On Aug 30 2016 by

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 …


It was 20 years ago today…

Posted On Aug 19 2016 by

I’ve always scoffed at mid-life crises. The number of dads out there buying Porsches and dying their hair gives me a lot to scoff at. Nevertheless, I’ve been feeling kinda old lately. At first, I thought it might be my daughter finishing up high school this year, or the fact that my son has the hair that I always wished I had, or the fact that my wife has not a single grey hair and looks better than the day I met her. More likely it’s my lingering fear that professionally I would one day become what I once beheld–that …