I’m looking forward to Marshall Breeding‘s keynote this morning:

Blending evolution with revolution: a new cycle of library automation spins on

Based on his ongoing research and analysis of the product, technology, and business trends of the library automation industry, Marshall Breeding will give his perspective on the current state of the field and what libraries can expect over the next few years. While some companies will continue a stable and evolutionary path, others articulate more dramatic changes in their strategies. Open source ILS options have already repainted the landscape, with new community source projects underway that promise additional change. The industry drives forward on two fronts, one focusing on automating internal library processes and the other providing new ways for users to discovery and access library collections. Major tech trends such as the rapid rise in smart mobile devices, the shift from local computing to platform-as-a-service cloud computing bring new mandates of change that demand new directions of innovation. These cycles all turn within an economic climate that presents great challenges in the levels of resources that libraries can bring to the table.

I snuck into his “L Plate” session about Discovery Layers and from the back of the room, I watched the heads nodding in agreement as he very strongly critiqued the web interface that many librarians accept for (and even want to inflict on)  their users. Marshall’s understated and reasonable delivery is so persuasive that I could imagine that some of those heads nodding were the same ones that had been arguing against the “dumbing down” of their library catalogues for years…

There are vendor presentations this morning, then it’s all National Library Innovation for me in the afternoon:

Warwick Cathro and Susan Collier, National Library of Australia, ACT Developing Trove: the policy and technical challenges

Paul Hagon, National Library Of Australia, ACT Everything I know about cataloguing I learned from watching James Bond . Paul has suggested that he will go some way toward answering my “how do we persuade our funders to let us keep making excellent metadata?” question yesterday. Even if he doesn’t I hope for a reprise of his Beyonce Interpretive Dance from Thursday, after all Kim Tari has done her speaker’s Interpretive Dance twice.

Contrary to Dave Pattern‘s suggestion, I believe that Marshall Breeding will neither be doing an Interpretive Dance nor wearing a pink tutu.

Here’s my CoverItLive session for today: