Bytes Not Bookshelves

“There’s almost literally nothing in a modern library that doesn’t involve technology in some sense.”

The content librarians manage today is no longer measured in bookshelves, but in bytes.  Over the last two decades librarians have increasingly come to view their roles and responsibilities in terms of technology.  And in the delivery of information, innovation is pre-eminent. 

Jason Griffey self-identifies as a library technologist. He is currently Director of Strategic Initiatives at NISO, and was very recently a fellow and affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University.

“The library technologist is increasingly a way that a lot of people tend to identify themselves in libraries,” he tells CCC’s Chris Kenneally. “A technologist is someone who is a sort of jack of all trades when it comes to things digital.  I started using the term as my experience in libraries expanded outward from the small managing a Web presence or managing a particular set of systems to the broader understanding of how technology interacts with all of the multifaceted parts of a modern library.

“The reality is nothing – there’s almost literally nothing in a modern library that doesn’t involve technology in some sense,” Griffey says.

The US-based National Information Standards Organization (NISO) is a nonprofit standards organization that develops, maintains, and publishes technical standards related to publishing, bibliographic, and library applications.  One year ago, NISO announced plans to merge with the National Federation of Advanced Information Services (NFAIS).

In Baltimore, February 23-25, NISO takes up the half-century legacy of NFAIS annual conferences with NISO Plus, a program targeting key players in the information ecosystem.