One way or another, I've been professionally involved with Library IT for over 15 years now. And I've been working in libraries for significantly longer than that. I got my first library job as a part time library assistant in 1987, my MLIS degree in 1996, my first job as a professional librarian in 1997, and joined UVic as Head of Library Systems in 2006.
Interesting times. My career has so far played out during a really fascinating moment for libraries, one that has seen their radical transformation from 19th century modes of operation to the gleaming high tech facilities they have since become. OK, the "gleaming" part might be a slight overstatement, but there is no question about the magnitude of the change: back in the 80s I was signing out books on little paper slips; now I oversee technology that provides unmediated access to millions of articles & ebooks online. As of today, 292,098,915 items, mostly newspaper and journal articles, are indexed in the library's search engine.
So it's pretty obvious that libraries have been profoundly affected by the advent of computers and networks, beginning in the 1960s but really gaining momentum since the 1990s. Prior to the 90s, library automation was mostly about automating traditional library workflows (lots of handling of physical books and journals). Since the 1990s it has been truly transformational, changing the fundamental nature of what libraries are (digital collection hubs). And I figure we are in 2013 about midway to wherever that transformation is going to ultimately take us. If that.
So the goal for this blog is to add my perspective to the already extensive chronicle of that transformation, as it happens day to day. We'll see where this goes.