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The End of an Era
November 15, 2007
I began my "Digital Libraries" column for
Library Journal ten years ago today. It's hard to believe that I've found something worth writing about in enough words to keep my various editors happy (I've had three over the years) every month for a decade.
During this time we've witnessed many changes both within and without libraries. When I began writing all of the following did not exist: Google, Napster, MySpace, Facebook, Wikipedia, LinkedIn, Skype, SecondLife, del.icio.us, and YouTube. And that's just for starters.
It's a very different world now. A company that didn't exist ten years ago is now spending millions of dollars that also wasn't available back then to digitize millions of library books. Library software vendors are being acquired by investment firms and undergoing mergers and substantial reconfiguration of products. Meanwhile, open source software options have increased and are widely seen as coming of age.
Blogs didn't exist then either. But since they do now it seems like a fairly good platform for continuing my coverage of all things digital that impact libraries. I can be as timely as I want, I can be as brief or as verbose as I care to be, I can easily include images and links, I have no editor to keep me from making a fool of myself, and readers can much more easily and publicly add to or refute what I say. In other words, it's about as bully a pulpit as any columnist could want.
So after ten long years
I will no longer be writing a column for Library Journal, but I will be blogging. I promise to never tell you what I had for breakfast or what my dog did. Every post will have at least something to do with libraries meeting the challenges and opportunities of the digital world. For your part you can talk back to me via blog comments or
direct email. After such a long period of mostly unidirectional communication, more than anything I want this to be a conversation. Don't be a stranger.
Posted by Roy Tennant on November 15, 2007 | Comments (1)
