Video: OCLC’s Lorcan Dempsey on “The Library in the Life of the User: Two Collection Directions”
Video and slides of a October 2016 presentation by Lorcan Dempsey are embedded below. The presentation was given at “The Transformation of Academic Library Collecting, A Symposium Inspired by Dan C. Hazen.” More video and materials from this event can be accessed here.
About the Presentation
The Library in the Life of the User: Two Collection Directions”
Presenter: by Lorcan Dempsey
Chief Strategist and VP
Membership and Research, OCLC
Two directions become more central as the focus of collections activity shifts away from the procurement and arrangement of a locally assembled collection, to a more diverse range of activities in a digital, networked world. The first direction is a response to the reorganization of research work by a digital environment. The second is a response to the reorganization of the information space by the network. This presentation considers each of these related directions.
1. The inside-out library. Creation happens in a digital environment, with an interest in the process, as well as the products, of research and learning. Libraries increasingly support the creation, curation and discoverability of institutional creations (research data, preprints, scholarly profiles, academic profiles, digitized special collections, etc).
2. The facilitated collection. Increasingly, the library does not assemble collections for local use, but facilitates access to a coordinated mix of local, external and collaborative services assembled around user needs and available on the network.
These changes pose important questions around organization, discovery and stewardship.
Note:I n October 2016 a paper by Lorcan Dempsey (same title as talk) was published in LIBER Quarterly and shared on infoDOCKET.
Filed under: Academic Libraries, Archives and Special Collections, Data Files, Journal Articles, Libraries, News, Profiles

About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.