About this episode

The episode features an interview with Lorcan Dempsey discussing the role of libraries as social organizations and the importance of storytelling in library leadership.

The following interview is part of the 2025 Charleston Conference Leadership Interview Series. In this series, we sit down with leaders and innovators who are making a real difference in scholarly publishing, libraries, and the broader information world. Each conversation is a chance to hear firsthand how these decision makers tackle new challenges, rethink traditional models, and collaborate across sectors. Today's episode features the next conversation from the 2025 Charleston Conference Leadership Interview Series. Heather Staines , Senior Consultant, Delta Think, and a Conference Director, talks with Lorcan Dempsey . Lorcan is a librarian, consultant, writer, advisor and keynote speaker at the 2025 Charleston Conference. Lorcan has had a long, distinguished career beginning over 30 years ago in public libraries in Ireland, to working at the Centre for Catalogue Research at the University of Bath to JISC and then to OCLC for over 21 years where he worked in research, served as chief strategist and Vice President. He is currently a visiting professor at the University of Washington. In this conversation, Lorcan explains why he feels that library education should think about…

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