The Information Specialist's Scoop

Carl Grant:

"At the ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim, I gave the keynote talk at the NISO Update Session. My goal was to give attendees some thoughts about how important it is that they participate actively in the shaping of the new cloud-computing platforms which are are emerging from a number of organizations, including OCLC, Ex Libris, Serials Solution, Innovative and Kuali. I stated that the main reason for our participation as librarians is simply this: So we can ensure the value of librarianship is contained within and amplified by these new technological foundations.

There were three key points I talked about us doing in order to accomplish this. They were:

1. The mission and value of librarianship have to be embedded in the software you’re using.

2. Defining our future is a task of participation, NOT representation.

3. For our services to have value they must offer differentiation."