As 2010 winds down, we are reflecting on what we’ve worked on or created in a mini blog series. You can see a run down of highlights here.
Our colleague and boss, Lorcan Dempsey, both leads the OCLC Research effort and serves as Chief Strategist for OCLC. He’s been in this role at OCLC since 2001 following distinguished service in UK libraries and at JISC. It’s coming on to ten years and his impact on librarianship has continued to increase over time. We think he’s one of the most influential and creative thinkers about library matters, information supply and discovery and the impact of the networked environment on both. If you’re reading this blog, you’ve no doubt read Lorcan’s blog (now on hiatus) and perhaps follow him on Twitter.
As it turns out we’re not the only ones who have such a high opinion of Lorcan’s thinking and his impact. We were proud that in 2010 he was named the Miles Conrad Lecturer by the National Federation of Abstracting and Indexing Services (NFAIS) 5 January: Correction: NFAIS=National Federation of Advanced Information Services. My apologies.. Lots of us get invited to lecture and do conference keynote presentations but this is a big one and an indisputable honor. They’ve been naming distinguished lecturers for the NFAIS annual gatherings since 1968 in honor of one of the key individuals responsible for founding the organization. It’s a roster that includes the giants – Gene Garfield, Roger Summit, Marty Cummings, Carlos Cuadra, etc. and back in 1976, Fred Kilgour, the founder of OCLC.
His lecture is not yet up on the NFAIS web site. 5 January: the slides are here pdf. When it appears we’ll blog about it. In the interim for some of Lorcan’s current thinking I’d suggest you review this presentation called an Environmental Glance from the June 2010 RLG Partnership Annual Meeting. If you’re dying to see Lorcan in action there is an .mp4 of presentation he gave in Trondheim Norway at a conference on Emerging Technologies in Academic Libraries called The network has reconfigured whole industries. What will it do to academic libraries? Not professionally filmed but all the content is there delivered in Lorcan’s inimitable (really) style.
Jim coordinated the OCLC Research office in San Mateo, CA, focusing on relationships with research libraries and work that renovates the library value proposition in the current information environment. He retired in 2016.
Jill, I’m ashamed not to have known of the name change. I’ve corrected it in the post and linked to the slide deck. Thanks for the correction.
Jim: I note that you have the wrong name associated with the NFAIS organization. We are the National Federation of Advanced Information Services; the name was changed in 2007. With regard to the publication of the Miles Conrad Lecture that Lorcan delivered, it may be worthwhile to note that his slides are currently available at the NFAIS site.