Author: Kathy Lussier

I am an Innovative library professional with 20+ years experience helping libraries integrate and manage technologies. have extensive experience working with member-driven organizations and facilitating large groups of people to reach a common goal. I strongly believe libraries are essential to a well-informed and educated population, guaranteeing confidential access to reliable information, regardless of a person’s wealth or means. I also am an open-source software enthusiast. Open-source software provides opportunities for libraries to take control of their systems, allowing them to meet the rising expectations of users while also staying true to their professional values.

Fun facts about tuits & the importance of bridges in OSS communities

By Kathy Lussier | 2023-04-012023-04-01 by Kathy Lussier

It’s been four days since I issued my Tuit Challenge for the upcoming 2023 Evergreen International Conference, and two people have already signed up to try out my tuit cookies on hackfest day! Many thanks to Andrea Buntz Neiman and Jason Stephenson for their commitments for contributing during the day! We are also well on our way to giving conference goers the opportunity to permanently damage their hearing by listening to me sing karaoke. On…

evergreenils oss

Cookies, karaoke and the quest for tuits

By Kathy Lussier | 2023-03-282023-03-29 by Kathy Lussier

Out of all the pre-COVID activities we’ve been resuming over the past year, the one that has made me happiest is the return of in-person library conferences. There are so many benefits to online conferences, including their wide availability to people who otherwise could not travel to a conference, but there is nothing like getting together in the same space with professional colleagues to learn, problem solve, and catch up with one another. This time…

ebooks

The challenge of keeping up with demand for digital collections

By Kathy Lussier | 2023-01-252023-01-25 by Kathy Lussier

This past Friday, I had the pleasure of speaking at the Southeastern Massachusetts Libraries Legislative Breakfast about some of the technology challenges facing Massachusetts libraries. The breakfast is an opportunity for library supporters and advocates to inform state legislators of essential programs and services provided to residents by school, public, and academic libraries. I have attended many of these events over the years, but I usually take a back seat while users share their stories…

personal reflections

An afternoon perusing old letters

By Kathy Lussier | 2022-12-242022-12-24 by Kathy Lussier

I had a healthy to-do list when I was heading into my weekend a couple of weeks ago, but then I made the mistake of hunting down an old photo. I found the sought-after picture fairly quickly, but, by that time, the glow of nostalgia had pulled me into the other photos in the box and, before you knew it, I was going through all of them. I have done this many times over the…

information literacy media

On elections and democracy in the digital age

By Kathy Lussier | 2022-11-292022-12-24 by Kathy Lussier

When I voted for the first time in 1988, I also seized an opportunity to volunteer at our local polling place to help count ballots. Living in a very small town that hadn’t yet purchased any kind of voting machine, we hand counted the ballots. Our Town Clerk viewed it as an outdated method, and she joked with me that, when I got older, I probably would be one of the few remaining people who…