Lorcan Dempsey

Lorcan Dempsey

Hi ... I am a librarian, analyst, and adviser. I enjoy working with groups of libraries to develop shared programs, products and directions. I have been very lucky to work for library, educational, and non-profit organizations in Ireland, the UK, the EU and the US. I have guided national and international cooperative and R&D programs.

I am currently Professor of Practice and Distinguished Practitioner in Residence at the Information School, University of Washington. Explore my reflections about the evolution of libraries in their social and cultural contexts in these pages.

Please get in touch if we can work together. And sign up to follow along!

Featured posts
Document chat: an early AI use case
AI

Document chat: an early AI use case

AI-assisted document query and summarization services are becoming more common. This post compares the 'ask a PDF' outputs of several services. Overall responses were good, with reasonable variation, and no significant hallucinations. It also touches on some characteristics of AI-based services.
Lorcan Dempsey 24 min read
Teaching: one year in
Research ∕ Learning

Teaching: one year in

I reflect on my first year of teaching at the iSchool in the University of Washington. A little about teaching. A little about Canvas, the library, and some software tools. A little about me and my learnings.
Lorcan Dempsey 13 min read
So-called soft skills are hard
Institutions

So-called soft skills are hard

So-called soft skills are important across a range of library activities. Existing trends will further amplify this importance. Describing these skills as soft may be misleading, or even damaging. They should be recognized as learnable and teachable, and should be explicitly supported and rewarded.
Lorcan Dempsey 12 min read
Latest posts
Document chat: an early AI use case
AI

Document chat: an early AI use case

AI-assisted document query and summarization services are becoming more common. This post compares the 'ask a PDF' outputs of several services. Overall responses were good, with reasonable variation, and no significant hallucinations. It also touches on some characteristics of AI-based services.
Lorcan Dempsey 24 min read
Teaching: one year in
Research ∕ Learning

Teaching: one year in

I reflect on my first year of teaching at the iSchool in the University of Washington. A little about teaching. A little about Canvas, the library, and some software tools. A little about me and my learnings.
Lorcan Dempsey 13 min read
So-called soft skills are hard
Institutions

So-called soft skills are hard

So-called soft skills are important across a range of library activities. Existing trends will further amplify this importance. Describing these skills as soft may be misleading, or even damaging. They should be recognized as learnable and teachable, and should be explicitly supported and rewarded.
Lorcan Dempsey 12 min read
Celebrating Ohio
Meta

Celebrating Ohio

A temporary relocation makes me realize how much there is to like and to say about Ohio, where we have lived for the last 22 years. We moved to Ohio from the UK (and lived in Ireland before that). Here are some observations based on our travels around the State over the years.
Lorcan Dempsey 29 min read
The narrative website: from signposting to storytelling
UX

The narrative website: from signposting to storytelling

As we move from a collections-based to a relational library, storytelling becomes very important. One trend is the emergence of a stronger narrative or storytelling emphasis on websites, which helps position the library, promote its services, and address specific interests.
Lorcan Dempsey 16 min read
Explore topics
Institutions

Institutions

Libraries are social organizations, entangled in multiple histories, politics and value systems.

417 posts
Books

Books

Notes about books, movies and reading.

307 posts
Research ∕ Learning

Research ∕ Learning

Research and learning behaviors drive academic library change.

294 posts
Collections

Collections

Collective, inside-out, facilitated, optimized, pluralized and computationally analyzed.

114 posts
Meta

Meta

Comments about the site, or more personal observations or topics.

30 posts
AI

AI

Posts about evolving AI story and its implications for libraries.

9 posts
Collaboration

Collaboration

Balancing common goals and institutional autonomy makes library collaboration difficult.

8 posts
Fonts

Fonts

Fonts make language visible, and can communicate a particular feeling. How are they used in libraries, cultural institutions, universities and related organizations?

2 posts
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Lorcan Dempsey dot net

Deep dives and quick takes: libraries, society, culture and technology

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