LITA’s Top Technology Trends forum yesterday included a stellar panel of commentators, who had many things to say that would be worthy to write home about. But the set of comments that received three stars in my reporter’s notebook were made at the very end of the session by moderator Maurice York, Head of Information Technology, at North Carolina State University.
He couched his remarks in the form of a metaphor, using the three aspects of the water cycle to illustrate some important points about how current trends are affecting libraries.
- The Flow — how our communications are changing from emails we hold on to, to Tweets that rapidly evaporate, with implications for libraries as custodians of the record. Listen to audio clip #1.
- The Cloud — how applications and data are moving from local machines to remote facilities, making our machine rooms obsolete and displacing our IT staff in the process. Listen to audio clip #2.
- The Rain — how the current economic situation may be causing us to make the wrong long-term decisions. What decisions should you make for your library? Cut wisely! Listen to audio clip #3.
Dick Kaser, ITI, VP, Content
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