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Sitting in Sewanee…

So, I am currently sitting in the Jessie Ball duPont Library in Sewanee, TN. Outside is an impenetrable wall of fog left over from the thunderstorms last night, but the interior of the library is silent as a tomb. Handfuls of students, maybe 2 or 3, wander about the stacks, but are absolutely silent.

What a difference from the vibrancy of the UL, or even the frenetic energy of Davis. Small campus, small library…I suppose that’s what you get. The funny thing is, I think I could get used to it. The library feels…manageable. Like maybe you could make a difference. That’s kind of a nice thing to consider when thinking about moving somewhere, isn’t it?

By griffey

Jason Griffey is the Director of Strategic Initiatives at NISO, where he works to identify new areas of the information ecosystem where standards expertise is useful and needed. Prior to joining NISO in 2019, Jason ran his own technology consulting company for libraries, has been both an Affiliate at metaLAB and a Fellow and Affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, and was an academic librarian in roles ranging from reference and instruction to Head of IT at the University of TN at Chattanooga.

Jason has written extensively on technology and libraries, including multiple books and a series of full-periodical issues on technology topics, most recently AI & Machine Learning in Libraries and Library Spaces and Smart Buildings: Technology, Metrics, and Iterative Design from 2018. His newest book, co-authored with Jeffery Pomerantz, will be published by MIT Press in 2024.

He has spoken internationally on topics such as artificial intelligence & machine learning, the future of technology and libraries, decentralization and the Blockchain, privacy, copyright, and intellectual property. A full list of his publications and presentations can be found on his CV.
He is one of eight winners of the Knight Foundation News Challenge for Libraries for the Measure the Future project (http://measurethefuture.net), an open hardware project designed to provide actionable use metrics for library spaces. He is also the creator and director of The LibraryBox Project (http://librarybox.us), an open source portable digital file distribution system.

Jason can be stalked obsessively online, and spends his free time with his daughter Eliza, reading, obsessing over gadgets, and preparing for the inevitable zombie uprising.

One reply on “Sitting in Sewanee…”

Ooooooh!! You got to see The Fog! I’m so glad. Now you’ve had the full Sewanee experience. (When you can sit in the reference room in the library, look out those lovely two-story-tall faux-Gothic windows and see nothing of the buildings across the street, or even the street, then you know you’re in Sewanee.

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